Blooms

 Summer, glorious in all its steamy heat and languid nights, is full upon us.  Greens in deepest shade are darkly purple, midnight blue, cooling our sun-shot eyes and bringing a moment's respite of breeze through the leafy canopies.  Salmon pinks, coral reds, butter yellows, cadmium orange with lemon and glaze of alizarin in riots of poppies, hibiscus, roses, honeysuckle, daisies, and lilies in a myriad of variety fill us with love for  this season of endless visual delights.  We breath in the perfume of summer wishing we could store it to warm ourselves come those cold November nights.  I am compelled by blooming Nature.

Where's the Vision? or Back to Backwards

Still wandering down the Vision quest of my painting (see earlier posts), I worked on a piece in the Echo Series, Vision in mind.  Ooooops.  The Vision had grown into something too concrete.  What happens to me at that point is that I become imaginatively paralyzed - can't let go, let happen (riffing on those Step Programs). Nope.  Nothing. Worse. BAD.  Into the trash.  Now what?

I've been making art for 40 years - sometimes it feels like 40 Light Years - but long enough to know that with some time (and a brief stint doing something I hate - that would be cleaning house, working on the computer, nothing...) the muse that lives in my head will return, usually demonstrating selective memory (can muse have memory?) - memory that doesn't remember the mess I'd gotten myself into the day before.  And so it did. (Thank you, Muse.)

Now, it is my opinion that when Muse returns, one doesn't look the giftMuse in the mouth and try its patience with things like New Process or Practice Process or the Bag of Already Gone Before.  One simply dances blindfolded to the workspace and begins.  Some may call this intuition.  I call it knowing your Muse.

So.  What you see in the pic (look carefully now - that's why I put it in pretty high res) is my eye and hand doing instinctively what they do with color and texture.  Tomorrow I will return and peek into the dry surface to see what Muse has left, revealed, granted, gifted, or tossed to me.  I trust that it will be there.  I trust because....well, I trust, just because I trust.  See you tomorrow - for now I'm going to stretch some large canvases.

Poppies for Auction

Coming up this Saturday, Sept 25, Winston-Salem, NC - "Going Once, Going Twice" auction to benefit Piedmant Craftsmen. I can't be there - doing the Common Grounds Art Birmingham show in MI - but I'll be hoping they do well on my latest gardenscape, "Poppies". It's 24" x 30", acrylic on board, in simple clear ash frame.

Poppies for Piedmont

The painting process

People are always asking where I get my ideas.  When they are asking about the paintings, the answer is that the "idea" evolves out of the process of painting.  Because I always begin with laying down texture and color, I clear my head of specific imagery and just follow what the textural forms offer up.  Sometimes this is a quick give, and sometimes I feel like I was in second grade and the school trickster offers me something but when I reach for it, he yanks it back with a big guffaw.  Then, it's patience and persistence because the painting never works for me if I try to force it.  Case in point:  a week ago, I began a large canvas to see how I felt about painting directly on unstretched canvas instead of masonite, my usual substrate.  I always work flat, so no problem, I thought, laying the 45" x 72" out on my work table.  Gessoed it a few times - didn't want the canvas to buckle - and then got out my palette knives and texture paste, a little pigment, and got to work.  First day or two, things seemed to be going ok.  Second day, third day, heading downhill slowly.  First it was too much texture, then it was not enough.  Color was working ok - nothing exciting.  Fourth day I thought I saw something.....hmmmm....think I'll go with that...Birds of Paradise by a wall.  I like deep greens and maybe the Birds showed up because I'm getting ready to go to Malaysia....sure, let's go with this.

Mistake.  Got the Birds in there and hated them.  Nothing was right - composition was boring, color was harsh, texture didn't make sense.....damn!  Where did that thing go that I thought I saw?  Out the back door, no question.  Time for the sander.  After losing most of the Birds I let it sit overnight, toying with the idea of cutting the canvas in half.  But, once I looked at small parts, I had some really nice things happening - here's some pics...

Once I changed the shapes of the texture I could see round leaves.  Hints of the Birds bright orange peeked through, despite the gesso, so I grabbed them.

Nasturtiums Gone Wild is finished.  I varnished it tonight.

Just goes to show you, life can be easier if you learn to go with the flow.  Forcing things never works in the end.

I'm off to the kitchen - we have just picked sweet corn and more peaches from the Farmer's Market today!

Add caption

Little pieces of Nasturtiums Gone Wild....

The Three Big Perks of Heat

I would post a pic but I ate them too fast - The Three Big Perks of Heat are.....(drumroll)...Sweet Corn (before the 4th of July, local, and sweet as honey; Heirloom Tomatoes (off the vine from a farm about 12 minutes away - warm, just firm enough to slice, plenty juicy enough to dribble down your chin); and Sweet Cukes (meat so white it looks like snow and skin tender with no bitterness)!

There you have it!  THAT's what hot summer sun is all about!  MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!

Gardens of the mind

Sometimes it amazes me that I live in an old factory on the lot line and have NO dirt in which to make the world bloom!  I’m certain it is what compels me to paint meadows, gardens, grasses, anything alive and growing.  My memories of gardening in Bellingham and San Juan Island, WA are never far from my mind as the weather warms and I hear the birds outside my studio.  I often “see” the peek-a-boo view of water that I imagine my son sees from his idyllic land.  I can feel the soil crumble, smell the musky earth, the mix of blossoming flowers, berries, new greens…mmmmm…and so I create my own gardens, or just express the gardens within.  It is a joyous act, like a song….me and the birds tasting the berries……..

 

The mind/body connection feels more like the mind/body stream at times like this.  What could we be/do/feel/see if the connection was always the stream?

What would it be like if you opened your door one day and all the blooms in your garden lay dead on the ground?  Puzzled, anxious, perhaps you would turn in a breath and head for your computer for answers.  And then, exhausted after a day of searching the internet and the gardening stores with no luck, you climbed into your bed hoping for a better day tomorrow.  Tomorrow arrives.  You jump into your cothes and hurry, throwing open the door.  No!  All green and growing things have fallen.  Up and down the road tree trunks stand as naked skeletons, birds fly frantically trying to guard their chicks exposed in their nests.  No one has an answer.  Some drop to their knees in prayer and supplication.  Others clatter at their keyboards, some resort to pulling volumes from the shelves, searching, searching, searching.  Only some can see the pieces of their souls flaking away.  

I think people on the Gulf Coast stand in their doorways, facing their gardens. 

Syed and I will be on Hilton Head Island, SC this weekend – come see us at the Hilton Head Island Festival at Shelter Cove .

Birmingham, MI and a beautiful weekend!

"Hibiscus" found a home quickly!  I had just finished it the day before we left for Birmingham and felt quite good about it.  I have been thinking quite a bit about language and nature and the points at which they intersect and diverge.  When work is process driven, I find that much evolves that one doesn't anticipate.  This comes as much of my work does, through the process of layering/removing/layering, and so on.  In those layers are thoughts and pieces floating.  The implied "window" may be the looking through to that which my mind knew or remembered, or wished to see again. 

The couple who purchased this piece spent quite a while in quiet contemplation and conversation with each other.  They each liked some different aspect.  When they decided to take Hibiscus home, it felt good to me - it felt as if they worked together to make a decision each would be happy with and that they were happy with one another. 

I hope you all will find my new website dedicated to my paintings - www.whitneypeckman-painter.com.  It's a softly grey and cool day here in NC - one to take in to my cells to revisit once the real southern summer is upon us.

Weekend in Savannah

Well, this doesn't look like Savannah....no, it's me trying to see what I'm doing through my own specs and the safety glasses as I sand the outside of some little boxes I made for the Savannah show in Gordonston Park.  You know, doing little things is not the same as doing cheap things.  In this case, working on small gourds is as much work as doing something large for a much larger price.  I think this may be the last of the boxes!

But seeing old friends and sitting in this very delightful and funky little enclosed patio of an organic coffee bar/cafe at the end of Forsyth Park was just one of the great things about spending the weekend in Savannah.  Watching the great shadows cast on the walks is another....

Then there was eating pizza at Vinnie's which I don't have a pic of because it was too delicious to put down long enough to take a pic of.  The place hasn't changed a bit - packed as always and no pizza anywhere that's any better...we had a medium pesto (no tomato sauce) with spinach, garlic, jalepenos, mushrooms and anchovies....WOW!  And finally, a chance to say Hello to our new little friend, Nia!

And then a quiet ride home to Salisbury .

The Process

 What is a clear picture in my head passes through many states of being before completion - currently this newest project (a large commission piece of an Iris garden) is in what I refer to as THE CHINESE NIGHTMARE phase.  Now, this is not meant to be a cultural insult of any kind, so I hope none of you are taking offense.  Rather it is simply what a nightmare dreamt by a single-language American girl might look like in Chinese........but in another couple of weeks it will be quite another story.  Till then, enjoy the pictures of the process....and, btw, the finished work will be on display for the opening weekend of The Celebration of Fine Art, Scottsdale, AZ, Jan 16-18.

New Work

Pushing the medium again, moving more into the sculpture realm - but never leaving the color behind. Looking forward to showing the new work at the Celebration of Fine Art, Scottsdale, this year. http://www.celebrateart.com/

October Flies By

Last night we had the first Pecha Kucha Night in Salisbury (and the 2nd in NC - our friends at Point8 in Charlotte beat us to the punch). Over 100 people watched 10 presenters on topics ranging from "Wayfarin' Stranger" to "Adventures in SurRealism". That's me doing my presentation, "Color in Translation". Take a look on http://www.eastsquareartworks.com/ or http://www.pechakucha.com/ for a full explanation of this combination powerpoint/slide show/poetry slam event that is now held world wide. Going to Singapore, or Berlin, or Tokyo or San Francisco, or Salisbury, NC........check and see when their next PKN is scheduled....it's a great way to meet new people involved in a wealth of creative endeavors.

Time Flies

Hard to believe that it's Sept already! NC heat is abating somewhat and soon I'll be able to open the big garage door on my studio. Can't imagine what it was like working in this climate pre-air conditioning days!

The Loveland Invitational Sculpture Show was a great success for my first year and I was very glad I made that long drive. We actually packed all the sculpture and ourselves into our Toyota Scion (!) and got 35 mpg. I had been hoping, as we drove, for respite from the heat but we got to CO in time for a heat wave and the humidity was only slightly less extreme than NC. Wonderful to see the mountains though and the wide open spaces.

And it was also good to hear a broader range of political views. It's an important election. Please take the time to track down facts, investigate stories, demand that your questions be answered by both sides, and ask yourself, in this shrinking world, if your personal issue is really the most important one to make voting decisions on. Or, could it be that foreign policy might be more pertinent this time around?

Gourd Workshops & Classes

At last! The Gourd Workshops have begun! Click on Workshops & Classes to see what's coming in September. We'll have a great time and you will love Salisbury in the Fall!

"Seven Poppies"

Here is one view of the finished Poppy piece. It's debut will be at the Loveland Invitational Sculpture Show & Sale, Aug.8-10, Loveland, CO. I hope you'll get a chance to see this breakthrough work. This is, of course, a one of a kind piece. There is no mold of it and it will not be cast in anything. The beauty of working with gourds as material is that they give inspiration by the very nature of what they are. I choose to honor that by valuing each piece for its individuality.

Working on new Poppy Sculpture

Here's a sculpture in progress - poppies. This is very much a additive/subtractive way of working, both with the sculpture medium and the paint process. Messy - and I HATE having messy hands - but it works for me and allows me to create the piece as I go, changing details as well as mass. I'll have it finished for the Loveland Sculpture Invitational Aug. 8-10, so I'd better get back to work. Weather's still great here in NC - heat coming soon, I'm sure.

HOME AT LAST!!!

It was just too depressing to report on our 2nd breakdown on the way home, so I didn't. Till now. After getting "fixed" in Tucumcari we were only on the road for a day when we broke down with the SAME problem, in Joplin, MO. It was Friday, so no one to do to work till Monday. But, having gotten on the NPR Car Guys site, Syed found us a great mechanic and we were on our way by Tuesday afternoon last week. Expensive trip, especially since we had to transfer everything from the van and trailer to a U-Haul to get home.

But, we arrived to gorgeous NC weather, a hip new restaurant in town, and a Saturday full of fun local events, including our own Salisbury's Got Talent! Great, great, great to be home! Check out www.EastSquareArtWorks.com to see what we're up to in our building!