Looking Up (working title)

Looking Up
Oil on Canvas
40x40"

This is the painting I mentioned recently that I was working on. I know it seems quite different to the recent fruit paintings I've been doing, but there doesn't seem enough room to really let go with the paint like this. My Kokanee paintings have more of this character - some detailed, realistic sections, surrounded by wilder, more chaotic markmaking. It makes me think of the eye of the storm, a little pocket of stillness amongst the drama. I used to have a recurring dream when I was a kid, which this reminds me of.

Looking up is a working title, as I'm still not sure what it's saying. We're 'living' with it for now (ie it's visible from almost anywhere in the house) whilst I make some decisions about it - I'm sure it's finished now, but it's quite loaded emotionally so will take some time to name. It's in the lounge, and it's much huger than I thought it was when it was in the studio.

I used a combination of brush, palette knife and foam pad to paint this piece. I wanted to create texture and light, in a slightly surreal, dreamlike way. I wanted to create something which expressed both ease and awkwardness, confidence and insecurity in the same complicated individual. It's physically a self portrait, but the ideas and intentions are more universal.

Paintings can often reveal something quite intangible about the artist, something not easily communicated in words. That's a big part of the appeal of painting for me, and the challenge of writing this blog about the processes involved in realising something so linguistically slippery, is an education every day.

Pluots

Pluots
Oil on Panel
6x6"

So here was a fruit I hadn't seen before...a pluot - here's what Wikipedia says about them:

A pluot (plü-ot) is a tradename for a fruit developed in the late 20th century by Floyd Zaiger.[1] In the United States, the fruit is known by most regulatory agencies as an interspecific plum.[2] It is a complex cross hybrid of plum and apricot, being ¾ plum and ¼ apricot in percentage. The pluot, like the aprium, is derived from the half-plum–half-apricot hybrid called the plumcot.

The fruit's exterior with smooth skin closely resembles a plum's. Pluots are noted for their sweetness (due to a very high sugar content), their intense flavor, and juicy pulp. Pluots are also rich in vitamin A.

I was looking for more dark red fruit to paint, and came across these in the supermarket. They're a bit more 'engineered' than I like, a bit too perfect, but they are a cool heart shape and I like the colour.

Finding beauty in chaos

Finding beauty in chaos
Oil on Panel
19x16"

"You need chaos in your soul to give birth to a dancing star."

Friedrich Nietzsche

This is my piece for the Tahoe Lost and Found project, which my friends Melissa Gregory and Becky Bell (TAMC) are organising to raise money for Angora Fire victims. Everyone around Tahoe can tell you where they were when they first saw the fire, mesmerised and horrified as we all were at the time.

Taylor and I had been fishing at Hobart Lake on the Carson side of the mountain, so the first we saw of the smoke was the pretty sunset as we descended towards Carson City. I had been taking photos of the burnt trees in that valley - the trees made for very dramatic, black vertical repetitions, with diagonal shadows cast down the steep hillside. The imagery appealed to my more abstract leanings, and I took lots of cropped photographs before we descended a little further and saw the smokey skies for the first time. I wasn't sure at first what we were seeing - a hazy sky brought on by the blistering heat? But it quickly dawned on us that the haze was indeed yellowish smoke, and the hot pink sky behind it was disappearing.

We got home to Tahoe after dark, and from our deck high above the basin we could see the Angora fire raging. The mountain was on fire, and the glow illuminated the night sky. We could see individual trees bursting into flames through binoculars, spiraling upwards with ferocious speed. It was like the horror film you can't stop watching.

I did the abstract paintings the next day, but they are so black I don't know if I'll ever show them. I used to do a lot of very dark work, back in my student days. I try not to engage that side of myself these days, inspiring as it can be to plough the less colourful aspects of my imagination.

I think this painting has enough hope in it to show the world. As far as the theme of the project goes, 'Tahoe: Lost & Found', I think it fits somewhere in the 'found' category - finding beauty in chaos.

The ole' apples and pears

Apples & Pears
Oil on Panel
6x6"

"The painter who draws merely by practice and by eye, without any reason, is like a mirror which copies everything placed in front of it without being conscious of their existance."

Leonardo Da Vinci

It's funny how even when you might imagine you're secure enough in your career choice that a small knock or two can wreck your motivation to paint. I've had to really talk myself back into the studio again after a series of confidence shaking events, and yesterday I finally began a new big painting. It's a self portrait, a reluctant one, because I had the concept a while back but wanted someone else to be in it. It didn't work out that way so I had to take a picture and work with that. Hey ho. I've also just had a small surgery on my chest, so can't really stretch or lift for fear of ripping my stitches so that's hampered me a bit too.

Today I felt like I needed a 'warm up' so I got into the fruit bowl again, and came up with a little pun which led to a painting I'm quite proud of. I needed a side story - even a joke would do - to motivate the still life, in advance. Most often, the title or anthropomorphism comes during or after the painting, but this time I needed an 'in'. There's always some dialogue between the objects or people I paint, which is open to interpretation by the viewer. Today, the simple pun using cockney rhyming slang was enough stimulus to initiate the painting, and the dialogue evolved by itself. For my American readers, 'Apples and Pears' is rhyming slang for 'stairs' i.e "I'm off up the ole' apples and pears, I'm knackered."

Resolutions

This was actually done at Valhalla during my residency - I've been too busy to post much work lately. I was showing my work at the Art, Music & Wine Festival at Squaw Valley last weekend, and it always takes longer than I think to prepare for it.

I swore off outdoor shows last year, and somehow managed to convince myself that it would be ok to do just this one....well, will be my last unless I take the plunge and invest in a proper heavy panel set up. Taylor and I made concrete weights for my tent, and I thought I had it wired so that the wind wouldn't destroy everything, but that was just wishful thinking on my part. A huge gust hit with a woman inside my booth, screaming "I didn't do it, I swear!" as glazed paintings smashed to the floor from both sides. We ran in, trying like cheap entertainers spinning plates, to catch all of my precious artwork as it flung from the walls like a scene from The Exorcist. It was rather stressful to say the least, and my husband is a saint.

It rained on day two, the tent leaked, and the resolution was complete - never again.

Marji Gallery, Santa Fe

Here's my work at the Marji Gallery on Canyon Road in Santa Fe!! Very exciting to be hanging my work in such a cool place. You can see two of my Kokanee paintings in the photo - the two blue ones.

Two Apples

Two Apples
Oil on Panel
6x6"

This is the first painting I did at Valhalla, using this gorgeously vibrant combination of turqoiuse and red.

I'm still enjoying the studio, but have had no visitors for two days and it's getting a little frustrating. The forest service owns the property Valhalla is on, and they decided for no reason that I can find out to padlock the gate so people can't drive in. I signed a contract already to be there so I'm kind of stuck now. They had a wedding on at the Great Hall on tuesday which might have been fun but it started as I was leaving. There was a memorial on yesterday, and since I paint by the open window, it was is if I was in there. It's hard to stay motivated painting in the middle of a funeral.

I painted a piece for Tahoe Lost and Found yesterday. This is a project my friend Melissa Gregory and Becky Bell are organising to raise funds to replace library books burned in the Angora Fire last year. They have asked local artists and other creative souls to contribute a piece which sums up for them, the experience of the massive fire which destroyed almost 200 homes in the Angora area of Lake Tahoe. The piece will be auctioned at Valhalla later on in the year. I'll post my effort tomorrow, and explain a bit about it then.

If you would like to submit work for the art auction, visit tahoelostandfound.com for more details.