The ideas that won't go away...a carousel and its implications...The Letting Go

are the ones to which we need pay attention.  The notion of a calliope has long been one of those ideas for me.  Many times observed.  Many times photographed.  During a recent trip to Boston we happened upon a calliope filled with children, some smiling and some hesitant, on a brisk sunny morning.  I stood at the edge and kept snapping photos, one after the other.  "The Letting Go" is the resultant painting, one I have been thinking about for years and years.  My attraction is definitely not nostalgic....although I have seen some delightful paintings that exude this quality.  My idea has more to do with leaving the "round and round", about becoming fearless, and about letting go of past hurts and hurtful relationships.  A spinning away from the expected and the predictable. The painting was created from many references including my own hand.  The most difficult part to resolve was the value one....I was shooting for a light-filled canvas.  Yet, I am value painter and needed to  include powerful darks....that is who I am.  I feel that I came to a useable compromise.

Last night on "So You Think You Can Dance", one of the beautiful choreographies was conceived from this same concept.  Interesting!  Synchronicity.

The Letting Go

The Beauty of Simple Shapes...

Eleanor...a sketch

I'm afraid that I am a newbie when it comes to appreciating the beauty of simple shapes.  Other concerns...many other concerns...have been much more apparent in my artistic studies.  Simple shapes are often masked in the background....more subtle...as we work our forms into visual presence.  It is true, however, that a painting is more successful from the get-go if the 4-5 simple shapes in the composition are also beautiful and stimulating in their interlocking jigsaw-puzzle-like nature.  In fact, in class we have been analyzing these shapes using tracing paper on top of famous paintings, as well as on our own.  I am beginning to appreciate these shapes from the beginning of a sketch rather than as an afterthought.

"Eleanor" is a sketch of my mother-in-law done on the deck of our vacation rental at the end of the day when light was waning.   I don't need any other detail to tell me that it is indeed her.  It is her shape, her posture, her figure.

Flexibility...

Lemonade   watercolor   13.5 x 18

is a characteristic that keeps us fresh and new.  It keeps the doldrums away, for the most part.  It helps up to solve new problems in a new way.  It prompts us to reuse, deconstruct and reconstruct.  I believe that it is a key ingredient for happiness.  When we first started visiting Charlottesville, Virginia a few years back we wandered into a spacious gallery called Sage Moon.  Great ambiance.  Several rooms.  Artwork by professionals and school children alike.  A cultural mecca.  Owner Morgan MacKenzie-Perkins, a dynamo to be certain, had to close this gallery due to the economy's downturn.  She picked up the pieces and found a new way to operate.  The works she features are shown in various local locations, including Siips Wine Bar.  Although she regrets this turn of events, she has certainly made the most of a bad situation.  Thanks to Morgan, many artists are still being shown in this wonderfully cultural community.

Lemonade from lemons.  Fresh at that.

Constant Change...

Slice   watercolor on paper   2.5 x 7.5

is difficult for painters to capture.  We deal with a frozen moment situation.  Claude Monet solved his curiosity with haystacks by painting an entire series.  Contemporary kinetic sculptors such as Janet Echelman and Anne Lilly create works whose movement IS the art.  Gazing at the face of a loved one provides multitudinous "looks" in the course of a day.  Which one to choose for the frozen moment?  Likewise with the ocean.  Colors, texture and direction change many times during the course of the day.  During our shore vacation, I painted only 2 very small watercolors of the ocean.  There could have been dozens.  Yet each one allows me to feel the infinite.

Give More Stickers

Recently I had the most wonderful experience of coloring with a lovely 3-year-old girl named Jaidyn on an extended family vacation to the shore.  She was armed with a lovely set of Crayola Twistables that I also carry in my drawing toolbox.  As we colored and scribbled, we chatted about the yuckiness of boo-boos and the deliciousness of milk.  About every 5 minutes, she awarded my sketchbook with a sticker.  As you can see, I was rewarded with many stickers....which definitely felt great. 

                    Picasso said: Every child is an artist.  The problem is how to remain an artist once                                                we grow up.

Jaidyn's approach was one of play....non-judgmental and honest.  Naive.  It put things into perspective for me...at least for a short while.

          Give more stickers.  Receive more stickers.  And dip some Oreos while you're at it.

Home...

Boston Beat   oil/canvas   40 x 30 x 1.5

is where the heart is.  Certainly true.  I am a notorious homebody.  Home is where I work, where I relax, where I cook and garden and where I worry.  Thomas Moore expounds upon the great soulfulness of home in The Re-Enchantment of Everyday Life.  Still, travel opens up great windows of awareness.  To travel is to experience new sounds, smells and flavors, as well as sights.  A spring trip to Boston was like a jolt of adrenaline.  Two new paintings are the result.  A pair of street musicians in Boston Commons in the early spring light was a momentous experience.  I envied their musicality, their spontaneity and their seeming unawareness of onlookers.  "Boston Beat" is the result.

Nesting...

Hand Woven   watercolor/gouache   11.75 x 10

is a fairly common sight this time of year, especially if you are an observant nature-lover.  My husband knows where every feathered nest is in our yard.  We wait on the trimming until the first brood has flown.  We painted nests in class.  Almost every artist was able to bring in an abandoned nest.  There they were in all their glory...feathers, strings, fishing line, small bits of paper and even some Chinese money plants woven in.  They are an art form unto themselves.  The challenge was to create an entire composition around the nest....where the dark brownness of the nest did not overwhelm value-wise to create a "hole" in the picture.  We had some amazing results!  Each one different.  Each beguiling.  The results were as glorious as the nests themselves.

Organic...

Organic Carrots   watercolor   10 x 17

is a word we've been hearing a lot lately.  Organic signifies no pesticides.  No chemicals to ingest.  No  plastic bags.  Just like anything else, there are arguments on either side.  Organic foods cost much more.  The produce is usually smaller.  It doesn't last as long.  More trips to the market.  But, gee, it is always so beautiful.  Where else can you get carrots with the tops still on them?  Much more beautiful to paint!  Carrots in a plastic bag yield no measurable aesthetic qualities.  I will be honest....just about the only time I spring for organic is for painting....then we eat it up quickly.  A good plan.  Organic markets please the eye as well as the palate.

Postcard Art....

Man on Floatie....a postcard painting

is a fun vacation thing to do.  My work does not rely on the outer environment so traveling doesn't necessarily involve big plans for plein air painting.  Some artists I know love to make travel journals that involves art-making each day designed around a place and time.  Not me.  I actually relish the break from the intensity of studio work.  I pack a small wicker suitcase with:  drawing materials, a small set of pan watercolors, a couple of brushes, and some postcards.  I find traveling with oils too cumbersome.  I like to travel lightly.  Painting small cards and actually putting them in the mail is a fun thing to do.  I enjoy the look of a handmade postcard after it has traveled across the country.  Most folks enjoy receiving them as well.  And, well, the others are happy to give them back to me.  One of my favorites was done quite a few years back around the pool of beach-side condominiums.  The patriarch of a large family spent the afternoon in a floatie-of-sorts.  And I spent the afternoon painting him.  I really don't think he knew what I was doing.  It took so very long, as I recall, as I had to wait for his floatie to spiral around toward me repeatedly....each time gaining only a couple of strokes.

If he only knew.