Comfort

I am honored to have this painting included in the exhibition "Through the Photographer's Eye", curated by Jean Wibbens and Robert Miller, noted photographers in the rural Bedford community where I live.  This show opens the new Sedalia Gallery at the Sedalia Center in Big Island, VA and it all takes place during the Artisan Fair this Saturday, May 31st.   The Artisan Fair showcases the best of the region’s creative community: art, artisan craft, food, music, and agriculture.  If you are in the area, please come out and share in all the phoenix-like happenings going on at this little art center that could.

Counting Minions completed

Well here she is, completed.  This was very difficult to photograph and it is still not the best quality picture. "Counting Minions" is a small oil painting of our little girl cat, Pixie, and the title reflects how silly we can be with loving our pets.  This painting was done very slowly and each session became more deliberate than the last. This is not normally how I work so it was quite challenging.  I almost jumped the shark, here, and am concerned it is a little overworked.  I am pleased with the greys, however and have come away with a very good understanding which I will be using in future. 

It is a true skill, or obsession, to be able to successfully keep going back in and pulling out the details as if working toward infinity.  I prefer to paint more immediately and what I feel is the energy of the subject.  I enjoy drawing in the details, but painting is a different line of reasoning for me.   I know two watercolor artists in particular (who have been influencing me greatly these past couple years whether they know it or not!) who are spectacular with details.  It's interesting to see and talk about what excites different artists.  

Left Over Paint

Someone once asked me what I do with left over paint since you cannot save it.  Well, this is an example of what I do.  I normally work on two or three paintings at one time so that when I come to a place where I have to stop on one canvas, I can turn to another to keep the momentum.  I don't work by piece, instead I work by ideas.  Sometimes, however, I need to just expend the energy, and these paintings are called the left-over-paint paintings.  No real thought but an interesting place to work from because I work with whatever colors are on the palette, and the subjects are just as random.  (These boys are my nephews, the photo was already a few years old.  They are so grown up now!)  What I enjoy about left-over-paint paintings is the focus on energy and experimentation. There is a freedom in this kind of painting that opens my eye to new technique and such.  It's all about the paint...

Counting Minions

 This is my second Pixie portrait.  I think it will be called "Counting the Minions".  Pixie was such an odd little cat~ we thought she could do things like talk to aliens and transfer millions of suspicious dollars into Swiss bank accounts.  You could never really tell what she was thinking, and sometimes she just would stare off at something with great intensity.... We decided she had minions all over the world that she was secretly contacting through kitty-telepathy and they were at her bec and call.  Regardless of all the silliness, she was a beautiful little girl.  I pushed the contrast again to correct the position of her nose, and better place the whiskers.  I think one last final round will pull everything back down to the soft greys and whites in her fur and lighten the eyes just enough... This was a nice painting to make.  I think of how sweet she was, and how I never really understood her....

Tai Chi with Sifu Jesse Teasley

 This was the second tai chi class I attended at the Sedalia Center where I was permitted to sketch.  I used my big role of paper, and charcoal. I just kept unrolling as I needed more space and now there are two enormous scrolls of charcoal sketches at the art center, that speak to the grace and energy of tai chi.

Each class adds a new movement and allows for individual instruction on what they have been practicing. Each class opens up a little more about the bigger picture of what tai chi means.

At the end, one student performed on her own, accompanied by Sifu Teasley playing the flute. Though slow and deliberate, she actually moved too fast for me to sketch. Instead I tried to draw the line that showed her movements, and a painting came to me.   I can't really explain how that happened, but I will continue to show what comes from this welcomed collaboration.

Happy Mothers' Day!

 This is an older painting. It is of my Mom, Diana.  Not really how she looked, but very much how I remember seeing her, when I was a young girl always looking up at her.  This painting is about letting go and accepting that she had passed.  It is about remembering to be mindful of all the things she tried to teach me; so much of which I have only come to understand through experience in these years without her.  That is being an adult, I suppose, realizing that the bitter and the sweet do coincide and only you can balance it for yourself.

She was adorable. ~As all mothers are.