Corner Cupboard

Corner Cupboard   Watercolor   19 x 28

is the resulting work from a "market place challenge" offered up to artists in my class.  While it is always good to paint what you know, it is also good to stretch your boundaries, to be able to see beautiful patterns, shapes and values wherever you go.  As I have already done so very many produce stands,  I went on a photo reference adventure for this challenge  to the local antique mall.  While the dark stern nature of so many antique objects depresses me, I often take a trip there to look around, just because the sights are so very different and stimulating compared to the same-same-sameness and plastic overabundance found in big box stores.  The beauty of many of these older objects has stood the test of time...still functional, still simple, still lovely...with the additional qualities of patina and  imprints of past use.  And, for some reason unbeknownst to even me, I have always been attracted to enamelware, with its chippiness, and small bits of rust. A visual feast!

This work was actually fun to paint, as the cherished whites became the story, and my quick, imperfect strokes reinforced my notion of the subject.

Excess Baggage

Excess Baggage   Watercolor   25.5 x 16

is the result of our classroom challenge of "beauty in the marketplace", which is an offshoot of an earlier challenge of "beauty in the basement".  For me, design is everywhere.  Paintings do not need to be inspired by grand cathedrals or exotic foreign destinations to be interesting.  And, indeed, setting up an interesting still life incorporating design can be aggravating as well as time consuming.  Our goal here was to snap photos in any marketplace...and subsequently to  crop, eliminate, and simplify in order to create a wonderful composition.  Artists chose locations with remarkable variety....the deli counter, the produce market and, for me, the local antiques mall. 

My own work is the product of a fusion of two stacks of suitcases.  The glove was added upon the suggestion of one of the classroom artists and was painted from my very own globe. 

I enjoy painting stacks of things....perhaps an attempt to maintain an illusion of balance, as well as to implicate the precarious nature of things....of life itself. 

Most of the luggage was painted first with raw umber to indicate dark and light patterns.  Glazes of color were added later.  The use of this color, to me, not only implies leather, but also creates the feel of "all things vintage"  A license plate with my husband's initials had to be included.

And as for the title "Excess Baggage"....don't we all have some?  I am using this work to inspire me to travel more lightly, to maneuver my way with less stuff.

Enough Said.