Celebration of Fine Art - Winner - 2010 Sterling Awards - Micro Business

We are so proud to be a part of this wonderful group. Susan and Jake Potje work all year long to make this event world class and really unique in the world of art shows. If you're in the Scottsdale, AZ area this winter, come visit us - I guarantee you won't be disappointed!

Hydrangia at Alexandria

 Hydrangia - one of my favorite works on paper, sold at Alexandria Art Fair this past weekend. We lucked out with the weather, having rain Sat night and a bit Sun morning. Took a little scenic tour around Fredricksburg on Mon after staying in the very fun and new Marriot Courtyard downtown. Now it's back to work for Birmingham Common Grounds in two weeks.

The Rest of the Process

Having finished the 12 x 12 canvases pictured in an earlier post, I moved on to a quartet of larger work - each piece is 16"x32".  This shows a bit of the progress - here I am into the 3rd or 4th layer, building texture and basic composition of shapes and flow.  Of course I always prefer, when I do a work in a form meant to hang together, that the entire work sells.  But I also try to make it possible to pluck one or two pieces out so that they work as pairs or singly.

 Here the flower shapes are emerging - looking like hollyhocks, loosely interpreted.  Within the texture and color I am almost always looking for a certain mood issuing forth from memory, or as a reflection of memory.  I paint to leave as much room as possible for the viewer's memories, sparked by my work, to flood in.  When the viewer is able to find his/her own memory in the painting, the conversation is complete.

 This is the most right hand side of the quartet - very textural, very colorful.  The narrow shape of the piece keeps it from being overwhelming.  It is rich and intimate close up, soft and quiet from a distance.

This is the most left hand side of the quartet.

You can see all four pieces by clicking here.

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 .

12 Step program for artists!!!

You simply gotta read this - http://bit.ly/brvveW  TOOOOOO good!

"Summer Rain" acrylic painting on board

I decided to have a giclee made of this piece. I've never made prints of my work before, but this painting is so joyful in color and image that I want to make it accessible to more people. I did the color check with the printer last week and it should be in my studio at the Celebration of Fine Art today.

Section of new painting

So much color in my life!  I was looking at this closeup of a painting I recently finished and thought it would make a nice piece by itself.  One of the fascinating things about using a lot of texture in painting is the depth it can create.  I almost always paint using many layers of transparent paints and I like watching the interplay of the colors and shapes created by layering.  These paintings are often really interesting to look at from very close up - almost under a microscope kind of feeling. 

It is currently hanging in the Northwest Salon at the Celebration of Fine Art in Scottsdale.