Staying cool

Shadow Path

12x12

acrylic

So far it's been a busy summer. I've been doing a lot of painting - YAY! If you go to the Silent Voices page you'll see the latest work in that series along with the prose that goes with each piece. I've also worked on some landscapes like the little one you see above. The Landscape page has a few updates. When I painted Shadow Path I was desperately in need of something cooler so I decided to forgo the red background I usually like to use for the landscapes and go with a cool blue. I really wanted to get out of the sun for a while and this country road looked like the perfect place to do that.

I've also been busy teaching classes and workshops. I especially love the the mini-workshop I do on Friday nights. I take my folks through a step-by-step process to finish a painting in the 3 hour session. Last week I had them do a version of the painting above - here are the results....

And so far, the highlight of the summer....

going to Ohio to visit my daughter and these 3 characters, my grandsons Josh, Jake and Kory. 

Hope you're having a happy and creative summer!

I went a little crazy

with texture.

 Passage 51, 12x12 mixed media

 Passage 51, detail

                                   

These two paintings are part of an ongoing series of textured mixed media abstracts that I've been working on for a while. Aside from landscapes and a couple of series involving social commentary, I love playing with different materials - papers, glue, paint, polished stones, texture gels, Styrofoam, tissue, whatever I can glue to a canvas. I just want to make something that's fun to run your hand over and feel the bumps, cracks and wrinkles. Fun!

 Passage 52, 12x12, mixed media

 Passage 52, detail

A Walk in the Park

16x16

acrylic on canvas

I decided to surprise everyone and do a landscape on something other than a red underpainting. This canvas had been painted blue with an abstract painting in mind. I decided to change that idea too. I think the early summer heat has me wishing for the spring temperatures to last a little longer. If I can't have the temps then at least I can paint something cooler.

One weekend Kelli and I took a girl's weekend and went to Hontoon Island State Park. It's an island east of us in Deland. We arrived by ferry and then spent the better part of the day wandering and taking pictures. This was one of the cooler areas. The nice shadowed trails were a pleasure with little bits of sunlight bouncing off the vegetation here and there. Other areas were more open and definitely hot. We were afraid if we didn't get off the island soon a park ranger was going to find our bleached bones scattered among the palm fronds. Maybe that's a slight exaggeration, but not by much. 

It's a beautiful place. I'd like to go back one of these days. I'll just plan on being a little smarter about reading the map.

I've been bouncing back and forth between 2 different series lately. You know I've been painting landscapes like crazy and I'm still doing that but I also needed to get back to the Silent Voices series too. Here's the latest painting in each of those groups.

Calloway Garden

12x12

acrylic

This one is painted from a photo that my mother took in Calloway Gardens in Georgia. It's a little different than the other landscapes I've done. I hadn't done anything with such an abundance of flowers. It was a challenge but I loved it.

Below is the latest in Silent Voices. It's the most autobiographical in the series. Some of the pieces in this series now include prose. As I pull out the older pieces and sit with them for a while I may write prose for them also. I'm finding that it gives the paintings a new level of depth and understanding.

BFA

 (baby for adoption)

48x36

acrylic

Fractured and broken in shades of grey.

The stories are sealed, the secrets not lies.

A life hidden and changed,

kept in tidy boxes so as not to disturb

the shining image of others.

Black on red, the letters controlled.

The signs were there, sending two lives down different roads.

One life unknown, the other unseen.

Imagination and grief hold hands under the mask

until the friction chafes and burns

with the once a year flame.

The lids break open, the cracks widen.

The flames get higher, the ash deepens.

Take cover.

Let the fire heal and the wounds return

to the soothing shadows.

Paint and fuzzy visitors

Outside the studio door I usually place an easel with a painting to display. Today I had one of my Golden Hour pieces on the easel. I stood at the door for a moment and then noticed that two catepillars were crawling around on the trees in my painting.

Here is one of the fuzzy little guys after he made it up to the top of the easel.

This is the painting that's sitting outside. The trees aren't THAT realistic. Maybe the texture I used made them think it was real bark :)

Loving texture

Serenity

36x36

acrylic on canvas

close up

New series, new page

Hidden in shame lies are told
about us, by us.
Gratitude for sacrifice slams the door.
Our motherhoods removed
they think, they wish.
Behind the door our hearts beat, our arms empty, we wait.
Our children grow, we search and find.
Sometimes good, sometimes sad
but still we sit.....

Huddled together, a group outside.
The mainstream flows, comforted in their easy belief.
We push against the current hoping to get through.
Again the door slams shut.
Again we lean a little harder.
A small wave of light escapes from beneath.
Our stories are read.
Replies come fast and furious to put us in our place.
"just because you had a bad experience" they said.

Behind the door the words get larger.
Through mothers in exile silent voices heard.

I started a new page on the blog. If you want to see more please click on the link above called Silent Voices. I usually post these pieces on my adoption blog because they are about my experience as a mother of adoption loss but I decided to share them here also because they are after all - paintings. I've included the writing that I do to give a sense of the feeling behind the artwork.

The piece above is called Mothers in Exile (I'm sure you guessed that) and it was done on 300lb watercolor paper. I mainly used acrylic but also added a colored pencil piece that I had started years ago but never finished - that's the door part of the painting.  I cut letters out of a magazine and for a textured design element I added tissue paper that I then used white acrylic to dry brush and accent the texture.

So there it is, another series that's ongoing.