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Come to Your River

2/15/2022

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"Come to Your River" - acrylic on cradled wood panel, 11 x 14.  Ready to hang.  Available Feb 20-21 at Artistic Souls Gallery.

Come to your river
I will come to your river
I will come to your river
Come to your river
(Wash my soul)
I will come to your river
(Wash my soul)
I will come to your river
Wash my soul again

Carry away my dead leaves
Let me baptize my soul with the help of your waters
Sink my pains and complains
Let the river take them, river drown them
My ego and my blame
Let me baptize my soul with the help of your waters
Those all means are so ashamed

Let the river take them, river drown them
- IBEYI
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Come to Your River
The inspiration for capturing emotion often begins with a song.  This song sits in the cradle of my emotional anchor and undulates like waves. Let the river drown my "pains and complains..my ego and my blame."  oh yes, yes please.

About the art: beginning with a black gesso'd background and working from dark to light.  A colored pencil scribble sketch, layers of watery paint in light washes.  Resisting the desire to overly define, allowing color to speak a story and dark shapes to define the features.
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A Murder Most Fowl

2/7/2022

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"A Murder Most Fowl" (skewing Jacques-louis David's "The Death of Marat") - acrylic on gallery-wrapped canvas, 16 x 20.  NFS

"I  haven't checked, but I highly suspect that chickens evolved from an egg-laying ancestor, which would mean that there were, in fact, eggs before there were chickens. Genius."
- Ta-Nehisi Coates.
The studio has gone to the birds.

Well, to the chickens, anyway.

​When you live with another artist, you might find yourself in a challenge to render a version of this, that or the other in  your own particular style in a sort of soft paint-off competition.  This time, the challenge was CHICKEN.

And since I only recently learned of "The Death of Marat", and was smitten with its beauty, it seemed only natural to place a fowl in the scene and skew Jacques-louis David with a wink (or a cluck?)
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A Murder Most Fowl (skewing Jacques-louis David's "The Death of Marat")
Skewing, like painting self-portraits, is a really good habit for stretching your painterly muscles and dabbling in different color palettes and styles.  And this one, proudly hanging in the studio/gallery, is really something to crow about. :)

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​About the art:  beginning with a notanized photo of David's painting, roughing in the shapes with a chunky colored pencil and some wet brushes.  Adding a layer of yellow ochre to the lower half as an underpainting and keeping a limited color palette as David did in the original.  Using soft, watery washes to create shadows and highlights and resisting the urge to overly define.  

Cadmium red light and a sprayer bottle used to create evidence of a murder.  (I wouldn't turn my back on that rooster, though)

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Internal Dialogue

2/1/2022

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"Internal Dialogue" - acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas, 16 x 20 x 1.5.  Ready to hang.  Available here and at Artfinder.

Our wounds are often the openings into the best and most beautiful part of us.
― David Richo
I've been struggling a bit with old wounds.

Not the fact that I have them - we all do; it's part of life.  They can and do still rear up like angry stallions now and again, take my breath away, punch me in the gut and leave me feeling quite vulnerable.  The struggle is with my internal dialogue in those moments and afterward.  The inner critic isn't a very kind person, and berates me for for having wounds.  Silly, isn't she?

There is a silver lining in most everything, I think.  Including those moments of facing angry stallions and corralling them into something you can approach and embrace.
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Internal Dialogue
I am still searching for the "best and most beautiful part" in those wounds.  

It's easy for me to see beauty in the scars of others - the strength, tenderness, tenacity, surrender - all the incredible qualities emerging from their past experiences.  I'd like to transform mine into something of beauty in my own eyes, too.  There is freedom in that transformation.  I can almost taste it.

About the art: beginning with an inspiration photo which has been notanized, creating a value study of darks and lights with watered down acrylic paint and chunky soft pencils.  Slowly adding the layers required to create depth and texture. Liberal use of water bottle, rubber wedge and paper towel.  

This piece was a wrestling match - almost as if the inner critic was fighting with me in the paint.  Eventually this woman emerged, victorious but perhaps needing a hot bath and a respite from struggle.  Art imitates life.
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I am Not Giving Up Pears

1/24/2022

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I am Not Giving Up Pears
"I am Not Giving Up Pears" - acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas, 16 x 20 x 1.5.  Ready to hang.  Available here and at Artfinder.

If I go to the pear tree for a pear, I am taking care of myself by actively nourishing my body.  If I sit under the tree and gaze at the last flowers of the garden, I am taking care of a deeper need: the need to respond to beauty.  I am not giving up pears, but I am more richly expanding my experience of the universe by allowing myself to appreciate more of it....It is the gateway to grace, the complement of effort.
- DAVID RICHO
I think I've spent most of my life going to the pear tree for a pear.  Maybe never noticing the tree, the last flowers, the sun on my face.  I got a lot accomplished this way, but there was so little richness in the days.

Now I spend more time gazing than gathering.  More time waiting than doing.  More time feeling than pushing past or through.  And boy oh boy have I learned to love naps.  Now and again I am even late for something. 
There is a terrifying amount of mental chatter that goes along with a shift like the one I've made (and am still making) - who's going to get all the things done?  Who will keep track of the things that need to be done?  What will people think when I'm not doing, going, making, solving, handling, communicating, taking care of  (and so on) to my fullest ability?  I am shushing myself a lot.

Thich Nhat Hanh passed away two days ago.  I sobbed.  His voice and words are in my ears, softly suggesting I just tend the lettuces and see the interconnectedness of all things.  There is no hurry.  There is only now.  I think he might be right there, in the bark and fruit of the pear tree, in the sunshine and the clouds, in the rain and the soil, in you and in me, sitting there under the tree.

About the art:  working from a notanized image and beginning with Stabilo woody pencils, sketching in the darks and putting a wet brush on the pencil to create a light value sketch.  Slowly adding the requisite 80 million layers of light washes and resisting the desire to make hair something other than an abstract idea.  Allowing sprayed water to move paint.  For this piece I stayed with three colors (a warm red, a dark blue and a dark brown) plus white and titan buff.  Liberal use of rubber wedge, a large, dry house painting brush and paper towels for blending.
6 Comments

Only I Will Remain

1/17/2022

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"Only I Will Remain" - acrylic and charcoal on gallery wrapped canvas, 16 x 20 x 1.5.  Ready to hang..  Available here and at Artfinder


Fear is the mind killer.  Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration.  I will face my fear.  I will permit it to pass over me and through me.  And when it has gone past me I will turn to see fear's path.  Where the feat has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain. 
 - DUNE, Frank Herbert


Just a little progress is freedom from fear.
- Bhagavad Gita


​Let's talk about fear.

It can literally freeze you in your tracks.  Once, long ago, in a dark U-Haul parking lot late at night, a man pointed a rifle at a handful of college kids who were changing a flat tire.  All the kids ran except me.  My feet would not move.  My body would not respond.  I felt paralyzed by fear.  I stood there, the man and the rifle behind me, and did not move.
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Only I Will Remain
This is an extreme example, but still...

In smaller ways, fear freezes us in place, unable to take risks, feel feelings, try new things, set boundaries, change things that so need changing.  It is no different in art, where the fear of taking creative risks keeps us stuck in a rut and reformulating the thing we already can do.  Fear is the mind killer.  

But a little progress, like taking one step when the feet really don't want to move, is freedom from fear.  That first step is everything you need to take the next one. Ready? Set? GO! 

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​About the art:  using a reference photo notan in a four value study, creating a rough sketch with charcoal and dark paint on canvas.  Building layers of titanium white and titan buff. mixed with the charcoal and/or dark paint, adding slight color with the addition of some blue and raw umber.  Resisting the temptation to overly define, paying more attention to the movement and texture of the paint and the layering of shadows.  Liberal use of water sprayer and rubber wedge.
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Rain, Sun and Their Wanting

1/11/2022

6 Comments

 
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Rain, Sun and Their Wanting

​"Rain, Sun and Their Wanting" - acrylic and charcoal on Arches 300 lb paper, 22 x 30.  Available here and at Artfinder.

I would like
my living to inhabit me
the way
rain, sun, and their wanting
inhabit a fig or apple.

- 
Jane Hirschfield
I didn't notice it until recently, but I am in countdown mode.

Feeling the next birthday (still 6 months away) because it is a big one.  Though inside I feel more vibrant than ever, the narrative I associate with being a sixty year-old woman is untrue and unfair, but there it is, weighty and angst-filled.  I have six months to change that narrative.

Hirschfield's words are a guide.  I want to be inhabited by my living - by sun and rain, by mountains and oceans and paint.  To be inhabited by the smell of loam, the taste of feta cheese and the sounds of a softly-strummed guitar.  Inhabited by a morning snuggle and awakening crows.   Mmmmm.


About the art:  beginning with a rough charcoal sketch (photo right), then adding liberal amounts of water and titanium white to move the charcoal into various values.  Adding thin layers of color and resisting the urge to complete all the edges...letting them remain in process.  Focus on the eyes and mouth, the darks and lights.  Adding geometric blocks of color and allowing paint to run and create texture.

After a couple of weeks with this woman, I feel like we k now each other.  She requires nothing more to feel complete.
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Everything 'Round Us Big Burn

1/3/2022

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​"Everything 'Round Us Big Burn" - acrylic on cradled wood panel, 18 x 18 x 1.5.  Ready to hang.  Available here and at Artfinder.
I'm still undone, not quite young
But I, I still try
Cross my heart, now I hope to die
Was the way we were
Just like you'd say, we'd turn?
Everything 'round us, big burn
​- ORVILLE PECK
A new year in the studio and WOWEE, is there a lot of wild creativity happening or WHAT?  (say YES!  There IS!)

Beginning with this piece, inspired by a recent hike through an ice covered burn forest in the gorge, where the blackened trunks against white snow and ice were dramatic and so beautiful, but also a bit frightening as the weakened, laden branches crashed and fell under weight and wind.
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Everything 'Round Us Big Burn
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Add to a half-dozen paintings in process the two new members of our family, both guitars.  Sounds of Johnny Cash and Donovan float throughout the house, along with my new favorite, Orville Peck.  Peck's video artistry, voice and music are boundary-pushing and yet timeless (see video left).

It's been decades since a guitar sat nestled in my arms, not quite young, but I, I still try.  With gratitude to my partner for encouraging me down this path, which finds me skipping merrily. :)
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Bad Jon

12/15/2021

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"Bad Jon" - acrylic and charcoal on 300 lb Arches watercolor paper.  NFS.
I thought my instincts were better than that
​- BAD JON
Holiday traditions are sparse around here.  

I mean, we had the usual sorts of things in the past- gifts and stockings and gatherings and whatnot.  But the kids are grown and out of the house and there are no little ones to drive what used to be a wild six weeks of preparation, celebration and exhaustion.  And I am sooooo loving this super chill, relaxed vibe and the opportunity to create new traditions that better suit the current state of things.

So this past Thanksgiving, my son and I began a new tradition - a portrait day.  He sat for me in the studio while we chatted and caught up on everything, I painted and sought to capture this young man and his wildly creative energy.
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Bad Jon
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He's a force of songwriting, singing and performing in Seattle right now, and you can check out his growing discography on Spotify.  (thanks for allowing the proud mama moment right there!).  

It's hard to believe this kid was once wandering around in footie pajamas on Christmas morning.

About the art:  beginning with chunky charcoal and a watery brush, roughing in the shadows and dark sections from live model and a notanized photo for value guidance, then coming in with titanium white to spread the charcoal.  Jon chose a limited color palette for this piece, and it made the rest of the painting easy and instinctive.  Using a water bottle and rubber wedge to keep the paint moving, and leaving sections for the viewer's eye to complete.
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How to Stroll Through the Fields

12/8/2021

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How to Stroll Through the Fields - mixed media on cradled wood panel, 11 x 14 x .75  Ready to hang.  Available here and at Artfinder.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is. I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass, how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields, which is what I have been doing all day. Tell me, what else should I have done? Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon? Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?

​
—Mary Oliver
There are four roses gardens near our home.  They are small, community-maintained and a bit scraggly most of the time (which is how I prefer rose gardens - a little wild).  We walk the dogs through one or more of these gardens each morning.  Lately, they are squishy boggy mud pits.  Lilly strolls through it like a wheat field in summer.  Wonder Mike skirts the edges, seeking mulch and higher ground.  The humans have boots.
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How to Stroll Through the Fields
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I've been photographing the roses as they wither, brown and fall to the ground.  And I almost always see faces in the flowers. (face paraedolila)

Using a black and white studio filter brings out these little faces beautifully (example left). This one, to me, is a bonneted puppy.  And given it was discovered with our mud-covered dogs, well, I had to paint it.

About the art: beginning with a professional photographic print and mounting it to a wood cradle, then sealing the photograph well.  Choosing a limited palette of soft hues and allowing the photo to be both  Notan and sketch, painted with a wet brush and acrylic paint mixed with matte medium.  
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Water in its clear softness

11/29/2021

6 Comments

 
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Water In Its Clear Softness
"Water In Its Clear Softness" - acrylic on cradled wood panel, 9 x 1 2 x .75.  Ready to hang.  Available here and at Artfinder.

Water in its clear softness fills whatever hole it finds. It is not skeptical or distrusting. It does not say this gully is too deep or that field is too open. Like water, the miracle of love is that it covers whatever it touches, making the touched thing grow while leaving no trace of its touch. - MARK NEPO
Abstract-scapes are in my head daily.

Swimming through my thoughts, cascading into dreams.  Big skies, tiny horizons, weighty foregrounds.  Water.  

We've spent a lot of time near the ocean recently.   The weather, unexpectedly, has been stunning - clouds, sun, shimmering mist and hazes, soft glows, reflecting sand, patterns. Sometimes I catch my breath, thinking "oh oh oh - how can this be?" because it is so damn beautiful.  I weep there often, heart overflowing and senses overwhelmed in the best of ways.
It's impossible (for me) to stand at the edge of the continent without feeling very aware of the fleetingness of life, the preciousness of the moment, the smallness of the minutes each of us exist.  And so I breathe.  In and out.  Grateful.

About the art: a rough charcoal drawing of big shapes, followed by loose brush painting with large arm gestures.  Rubber wedge, paper towels, fingers.  Think layers and thick.  A palette knife here and there. Keeping the palette of colors narrow-is and resisting the cadmium red that I long to splatter on everything. :)
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