(imagine)Post Pandemic Revelry

It requires a sturdy imagination to soldier through these days of shelter-in-place, for those of us who have the good fortune to be able to, that is. I started out at my art table, painting water shapes of birds and adding colors to the water as I worked my way around the paper. The source material was an article in National Geographic about “Why Birds Matter” with pictures of some of the most flamboyant birdlife. By the end it seemed they was celebrating something.

fluid acrylics on w/c p

Ah! Imagine . . .

The post pandemic revelry

Of pent up desires 

To shake tail feathers

To sing and dance together

. . .TOGETHER! again!

To share unfiltered air

Kiss the warm cheek

Hug the big belly softness

Drink the unmasked radiance

. . .of a SMILE!

I like to imagine the freedom of being a bird right now, especially when I’m eating my lunch, sitting in their flight path next to the fountain/bird bath. (Of course they have their own avian viruses at times), but I’ll enjoy their unmasked flights, their social songs and raucous bathing.

It helps, until such time as I can hug my human friends again!

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What a difference a word makes

Adding words to your paintings creates new layers of interest. That’s what we explored in Muse Group last week. Using word at the beginning, middle, and/or end. Layering it on, covering it over or uncovering like a palimpsest with traces of meaning remaining mysteriously, leaving the minds of the viewers to make their own sense and meaning.

I have been wanting to play with different tools to add words. Here I started with the “5 rhythm” piece from the first class, which was painted to flowing music, and used a white gel pen to draw in the word which itself seemed to flow through the color patterns.

This piece was painted to the musical rhythm of Chaos, so I chose to use my ink pads and alphabet stamps to create a chaos of  letters, echoing the meaning of the words employing another level of movement.

I had treated myself to a new set of cling foam stamps by Jim Holtz idea-ology and tried them out here with a new ink pad color “potted soil”. The ghost of the letter stamp added a dimensional feel that was a great discovery.

To see the “before” paintings go to Paint the Rhythms and for more about palimpsests go to here and here

Show and Farewell Party at Pie Eyed Gallery!

Have you ever stopped in at the colorful Pie Eyed Gallery at 2371 Gravenstein Hwy South in Sebastopol to see Lauri Luck’s and other local artists’ work. . .and maybe have a piece of the most amazing pie? In any case you won’t want to miss this weekend’s show, which will be the last and have more art than ever – mine included. I’ve released a flight of my Party Chicks (paintings) for the show and I’ll be there this Friday for the opening. Hope you can make it. Here’s the details:

Opening: Friday May 10th from 3-7

May 11th and 12th, open both days 12-4

2371 Gravenstein Hwy South, Sebastopol

Look for the ART and PIE sign and turn at the Giant Yellow Duck!

 

 

The Bouquets Continued. . .

On my visit to the Bouquets to Art exhibit at the De Young Museum last month, my eyes became saturated with the 120 stunning floral displays exhibited with the art they were responding to. I left with a voracious hunger for the floral image. Not surprisingly the fact that it is springtime here and everything that is not in bloom is swelling up with potential, has encouraged more bouquets of art.

fountain pen and watercolor in Stillman and Birn Beta sketchbook 5.5X8.5″

These Calla lilies, picked from my garden and placed in a lovely little ceramic vase. Not a very skilled arrangement to say the least. But the next morning I saw that I had created a most humble but appealing Bouquet to Art! And so I sketched it to add to the collection in my sketchbook.

In the living room with my painting “Alvus” in the background.

And then as we started a new Muse Group, we used some fun mixed media techniques to create. . .floral paintings of course!

Lots of acrylic paint slathered and fingerpainted on and scraped back to a warm underlayer of paint.

There should be a way to get inside spring. To walk around first, hop up and grab a stem or branch, and stand up on the rim of it. Look down, and then ??

Secrets are like that. They don’t reveal themselves easily. They wait in the dark, hide behind the flowers and let you get all woozy with the fragrance so you forget to look. Do you really, really want to know what’s there?

Hang out a bit longer, just another minute.  Oh no! There you go again, drifting off. Spring is like that. Those blossoms give no sure footing, especially after a drizzling rain.

Does this part of spring make you a bit woozy? Does it make you want to do everything all at once and then to just sit still, do nothing, breathe it in? We’ve been drenched in sunlight here, watching the apply blossoms pop and the clouds of Pipevine Swallowtail butterflies drunkenly imbibing their blossom nectar brew, then swooping down to lay their almost invisible eggs on the vines.

Mix Those Media! Workshop

Here’s the flyer for a new weekend workshop I’m offering in November ! 

For more information check out my website. Feel free to contact me with any questions and to register. Hope you can come!

The Breezy Mountain

I have already switched from the feeling that I have the luxury of time in my month here in Assisi to a bit of urgency about all that I want to do and accomplish while here.  There’s the hiking and the sightseeing and the sketching, but also the studio time in the lovely spacious attic by the open windows where the breezes are always blowing.  I’m in the sponge stage of soaking up the sensory experiences and seeing what gets squezed out on paper.  My fascination is with the mountain rock, transformed into the roadway which glows white at midday and silver at night, the rocks here and in town that sustain the memory of 20 centuries of living.  Add to that the glory of art in those magnificient structures and somewhere in there is to be found the paintings which I hope to create this month. The above is a start, tease, the beginnings of ideas to be explored.

Imagine With Art July Newsletter

Study in Violet, acrylic on w/c paper, 10 X 10″

Get your free copy of the July issue of the Imagine With Art Newsletter!  with a new art play lesson, summer workshop offerings, and musings about chicks, humor, Mind Mapping and art, and other assorted tidbits to feed your Muse.

A Video of the Four Hands Painting!

Just three more days left to see the Four Hands Painting show of collaborative paintings by myself and Suzanne Edminster at Phantom IV Gallery in Windsor, CA!  Open 12-6pm Thursday-Sunday at 9077 Windsor Road, Windsor Town Green, CA

And here’s a peek of us at work, though I would hardly call it that. . .enjoy! (courtesy of my son Andrew, home for spring break and helping with the editing)