Figuratively Speaking - Red Barn

8"x8" oil $160

Aren't we lucky that we get to do revisions?  It takes a lot of failure to get to success but the good news is that it just takes some tweaking to get it right.  I am not sure what I am talking about, but it does apply to painting.  I have been studying Vermeer and his method of layering glazes to get it just right...not everywhere, but where it counts, has inspired me.  I am usually in a hurry but I realize I need to slow down and pay attention to what details are needed to make it glow or sing or just be sweeter.  I think it applies to a lot of other things though. Like cooking for instance.  My friend Heather is a talented chef.  I can make a decent, and healthy meal, but she pays attention to every detail in layering and flavors and textures and presentation.  Going to a dinner party at her house is a special treat.  It applies to exercise.  Theresa is a beautiful woman who hikes and does Tai Chi and swims and does yoga, but she doesn't stay in shape for the sake of exercise.  She does those things because they keep her way of thinking healthy.  Shinrin Yoku is Japanese for "forest bathing."  It is a method of breathing in the energy and peace of the woods.  Theresa does that moment to moment in her everyday life.  It applies to relationships as well.  I was going to try and stretch this analogy a little further, but I guess I really don't know what I am talking about.  I need to give this one a little more time and let the literary glazes slowly build up.  Go Figure!

Figuratively Speaking - Matisse Bouquet

8"x8" oil Price $160

I finished a book about Matisse right before I did this painting.  It struck me how much I had been influenced from reading about how he painted and looking at reproductions of his work.  That in term got me to thinking about influences in general and how I wanted to make sure I was being influenced by people and things that are going to enhance my journey in life and art.  Later I was listening to Antrese Wood's podcast with Frank Lombardo.  It turns out that he is the one I want to be influenced by in my artwork.  That was a real revelation because I know I have been inching towards this for a long time.  I of course dug deeper and started reading his blog, which is very out of date by the way, but the information he posted last year is timeless.  The one I read was about artists and their daily routines which of course made me look at mine.  He referenced a book Daily Rituals:How Artists Work by Mason Currey. So here are my "rituals."  I get up between 7-7:30 or earlier, depending on how I slept.  I do some stuff around the house and then go to the gym where I workout, swim and socialize and get home around 11am.  I fix a concoction, you could call a "smoothie," but it is very healthy, not very pretty.  I check my emails or read while I drink it, or do more household stuff.  Then I go to the studio and work and usually stay there until around 4:30-5, but sometimes later depending on how in to it I am or if I have a deadline.  I also try to get a walk in the woods in there somewhere too.  I can't really call myself a full-time painter, because I usually just paint in the afternoon, but I am a full time artist because I spend the evenings hanging out with my husband (who has a job) and doing art business or reading (about art) or preparing things for another painting.  Sometimes we go out to a concert or I meet with some other artists or go to life drawing, or teach, but you get the picture.  My weekends are scheduled differently, and are more flexible, but they have a rhythm as well.  So back to Lombardo.  He quoted William James with the phrase, “effortless custody of automatism.” He was referring to routine giving freedom not to have to think about daily details.  He also mentioned the supposition that Edison had numerous versions of the same suit so he didn't have to think about what he was wearing.  I am so like that.  I have always wanted a uniform, and kind of have that in a way.  I love necklaces and use them for my aristic fashion statement, but black leggings and a black tunic works for me in about every situation.  Anyway, I am really happy with my Matisse-like painting.  I deliberately went back in and added more detail just to make it mine.  I don't want to a copy-cat, just slightly influenced.  Go Figure!

Figuratively Speaking - Celebrate!

8"x8" oil

I feel a little guilty posting a painting image called "Celebrate!" when so many are mourning the events in Charlottesville from this past weekend. I too, am saddened by the injuries and death that occurred.  The attention that North Korea was intensely getting at the end of last week seems to be put on hold in the capsule of fear about the Alt-Right.  That is the way with news.  There is only so much space and time to put out a message, so one gets sidelined for another.  I want to spend my short time to put out a message of love and peace and celebration because, one eye may only see the sadness and discouragement, but the other can see the beauty and the good.  I think wisdom is missing from the social commentary.  I do not believe we should bury our heads in the sand, but I do believe that confronting radicals on the brink of violence is unwise.  We need a strong voice in our culture for understanding each other and a clear message that hatred is unacceptable.  We can respect the rights to differing opinions, but I do not believe that the voices of the KKK or neo-Nazi idealists are merely a differing opinion, but rather a refection of evil.  I just saw that Trump has finally denounced them.....finally.  I think we need to take their rhetoric off the front pages, out of our faces and reduce their voices by not giving them our attention.  Is anyone with me on this?  Maybe I am talking to the mirror...who knows?  Go figure!

A Good Day

8"x8" original oil

It is cold enough for the brave to be out skiing today, but there are not a lot of trails open yet.  I love skiing.  It is invigorating, pushes me to my limits, and I think it is just breath taking to ride the lift up to the top of the mountain and see such grand vistas.  I have been wanting to do a series of ski paintings for a few years and I think I am finally ready to do it. 

To learn about this painting or to purchase it go here.

8"x8" oil

I set up this still life in my little solarium with natural light on it and the background with the back yard through a window.    I was just playing around with some things I like, a patina bronze bird sculpture and a  antique bluish glass bottle I found at a yard sale/plant sale.  I was there for the plants, but didn't find any I liked and as I was leaving this bottle called out to me.  I really don't like yard sales or collecting things I don't use, but this bottle was such a lovely color, I new I wanted to paint it.  So it has been sitting around for a while and this is my first attempt.  I don't know why I put the mum on the back of the bird...but I did and I like it.

To purchase go here.