Art Speaks

Watercolor Class at Anne Arundel Community College

This is my spring class at Anne Arundel Community College.    This has been a wonderful class. We only have two more left! Everyone in this group may think they are a beginer but that is not the case any more. They have graduated and now have some of the basic tools  to express themselves visually.  Last night everyone did an individual project and we painted turtles, sunsets, old churches, gardens, and butterfllies.   I saw incredible progress as  ech student made  personal decisions about the best way to approach  elements of the design.

 

 We reviewed the color clock last evening which is  a simple tool to keep the colors fresh  and clear--avoiding grayed down color,  or sometimes what we refer to as mud. Now mud can be good--especially for weathered wood and dirt but sometimes we need true clear color.  For more information on the color clock visit  http://www.paintpencil.com

Now-- if you are asking-- what does this have to do with art speaks?     Well- don't hesitate to take a painting class  if art is speaking to you. Don't wait  because you think only special people can do this.   With a little assistance you CAN do it.  Like anything else it is the desire, not talent that needs to be in your heart. The best teacher I ever had said " making art is 95% desire and 5% talent."  That statement was empowering to me as a new painter and  I hope it will encourage you also.

 

The Winding Stair

I enjoyed this painting. It was inspired by some of the markings on ancient stones in Ireland. I will post a few of these for you to see.   I took a poem by William Butler Yeats and added some calligraphy on top of the shapes. I love Yeats. This is The Winding Stair and begins with a line that seems to fit the images on the stones -- "My Soul I summon to the winding ancient stair; set all your mind upon the steep ascent"    I love the first line as  I see the soul on an ascent and the stair does wind.     From an artistic point of view this was a simple color plan using Pthalo green and permanent rose.  When combined you get a soft gray.  The little spots of green and pink in the picture are opposites-- as they come together in equal parts a neutral gray forms. In life we want this to happen also-- move away from the drama of opposites and to the center. A less polarized life is one of peace.

I posted three images so you can see the progression of the painting. This is what I call an intuitive  painting because once I step aside the painting seems to paint itself.  After the first application of color  I let the colors and the flow of the paint lead me along.  

All the paints are iridescent. The yellow is gold paint and some areas  are glazed with silver.   I have defined the shapes in the painting by painting in the negative, or I would rather say, by painting on the other side.  My art always has a message.

"This art work is entitled " Dimensional Beings." The world you see is not everything that is.  There is an illusion which fools you into thinking nothing more exists. Other dimensions exist simultaneously with your own world.  Not all sentient beings possess a body ,and when you die your consciousness continues without your body. So you ultimately will become a dimensional being yourself. "

Irish Collection

  This was my warm up painting for Ireland!   I will be headed there in just over a week.  You'll be seeing lots of new paintings based on an Irish theme.

Sometimes I call this type of painting a collage. There are no pieces of rice paper glued to the surface, but instead it is a collection of different images. Creating a picture that is cohesive using this technique is challenging because everything has to be connected in some way and there has to be a logical way for the viewer to  walk through the painting.   I used some similar colors and negative painting to bring it together.

In these scenes you can see  a round tower and the distinctive Bridges seen all over Ireland. The door on the white washed cottage came from a photo I took on the Aran Islands. Unfortunately nthe traditional Irish cottage, particularly the thatch roof is being  replaced by the modern world. I prefer the old style and I have been told thatch is very expensive to put down.

I missed the faeries on this one but  I'll find  a way of including them in the picture next time.  I do believe they exist and have caught a wee glimpse of one meself!

Healing Wth Presence and Beauty

Healing with Presence and Beauty Workshops in Easton, Maryland   July 20 and 21

Scottsdale, Arizona- June 1-5

and Boston, Massachusetts June 15-16

For the past  8 months I have been an apprentice to the contemporary shaman, Robin Rice.  This has been a life changing experience for me.   I have told many of my friends that studying with Robin has been like tapping into a vast ocean of spiritual knowledge.   I wanted to let all my readers know that you also have the opportuntity to study  with Robin by being a part of one of her workshops.  

Robin says this ," This retreat will be an unfolding of the Truth of Beauty you have always known,but perhaps only had glimpses of. It is a deep and profound immersion in a way of life that can change everything."

  You can read more about the workshops and Robin Rice by going to The Contemporary Shaman.com/learn.html

Connamara

I have been moving and caught up in the chaos of selling and buying houses. Today was the first day in 2 months that I was able to sit quietly and paint. I   think we all can benefit from some quiet time doing what we love. For me, painting is almost as important as eating. Without it I am starving.  Moreover, without   visual expression I feel that my life is unbalanced.    

I am getting ready to go to Ireland in a few weeks. I am an Irish citizen and go  over the big pond to this special place at least every other year. For me it is a spiritual home. My grandmother was my mentor. She was born in County Mayo. At the age of 17 she booked a ticket on the Titanic.  Luckily, a gypsy told her she had a bad feeling about this boat and my grandmother rescheduled her trip and sailed to Boston on the Ivernia in March of 1912.

This painting was inspired by the area in Ireland called Connemara in County Mayo where my grandmother was born. There is a beautiful valley there and I have often fantasized about spending a day in the valley painting. It is a place where cottages and people were in abundance in the 19th century, however, after the potato famine the valley was deserted by all except sheep. It carrrys the echo of spirit.

Self Discovery

 The title of this painting is Self Discovery.   Sometimes it takes a life time to know who we are. Often there are twists and turns in the road and we go round  and round in spirals thinking we will never find the answer. One day the twists and turns stop and one road  leads directly to the source of all  souls-- to  human, animal and plant --and we rest in the knowing that we are connected to something  much bigger than ourselves.

The Way The Faeries Went

This watercolor collage is based on a photograph of the Village of Sneem on the Ring of Kerry in Ireland.  In the center of the village is a sign post saying "The Way The Faeries Went."    I loved that phrase.   I grew up in an Irish household. My grandmother immigrated from Tourmakeady in County Mayo  and my grandfather  was from Tully Cross in Galway. Both spoke  openly about the "little people," as they would refer to them.  

In the  field in front of my grandmothers home there sits a solitary "Fairy tree." These trees are shaped beautifully and are prized by the Irish.  If a highway is being built in and requires  cutting down the fairy tree, most times the road will be built around the tree.

In Celtic Lore stories of the faeries abound. My grandparents believed in the true existence of these beings. If mischief was going around in the house, they would blame the little people and then appease them with gifts.

So, you can only imagine how entranced I was when I encountered the  sign in Sneem. The town itself is coloful and busy like the painting. I tried to capture that quality, however, the piece began to be somewhat busy. It has quite a few layers of Oriental papers. These were laid down in Vertical strips. The white  building is the focal point and the zig zag path leads directly to the door.   

I may have to tweak it some more before I am done but for now I will leave it alone. Half the battle as an  artist is deciding when to quit.  For now, I feel that I captured the fairy-like quality of this amazing ittle town.

Angels Poem

This was a commission painting in 2007.  I was asked to include  this verse in a painting so the the person could give this to an individual who has helped others in a significant way.  I love the verse and it says:

"Go give to the needy

 sweet charity's bread,

for giving is living

the angel said

But must I keep giving again and again,

my peevish and pitiless

curt answer ran

Oh No said the angel ,piercing me through,

just give til the Master

stops giving to you."

 

 

 

 

 

Entangled

This is one of my negative paintings.   In an "art sense"  I call it walking the line. This refers to the process of choosing two  opposite colors and gradually  blending them together until a neutral gray is achieved. The gray in this painting is a mixture of  green and red.  In most grays there is a little more of one color than another and in this case the proportion of green is greater.

Now  my art will speak to you.    " It is easy to get entangled and distressed by the changing face of the world and the constant pace  of one's personal lives.   As the  shapes twist and turn in this painting so do your  daily  routines  move quickly requiring your thought and actions to move with  these challenges.

As you move through your day remember that everything in the world is based on duality or opposites.    Here are a few: 

 Love- hate;   cold- hot; rich-poor; republican-democrat; right-left; judgement-non-judgement; submissive-agressive; north-south;  warm colors-cool colors; masculine-feminine; power-powerlessness; desire-fear; superior-inferior.

 The opposites in the  painting are depicted by  warm  yellows and reds on the left and  the blues,g reens,and purples  on the right. The center represents the neutral zone where these opposites blend into one.   As you go about your day begin to recognize those thoughts and actions that sit on the  warm and cool colors and  begin to  stretch towards the center. The blending of opposites, just like the colors, happens in the center  represented by the gray circles.  

 As  movement toward the middle takes place, a unification of opposites occurs. The feelings change and  life in the neutral zone is a little bit easier".