Immersing and Emerging

"Beside Myself"  Acrylic and mixed media on canvas

“Beside Myself” Acrylic and mixed media on canvas

 

True to form I’m coming up for air after months of taking the road less travelled (at least for me.)   This has been a time for introspection and experimentation as well as relaxation by default (by physician’s orders.)    I’m decades into this, my chosen profession, and past the mid century of my lifetime as this person, this artist.   So just as a personal life has chapters and evolves, so does my life as a painter.

My interest has always had a juxtapositional point of view from creating images that while  tipping more to the representational side, are at their core explorations of psychological states versus stepping into a more ambiguous and intuitively created visual space while holding onto natural themes.  This has been a continual push and pull for me.    I’m certainly not the first artist to this dance between divergent yet related themes.

As a painter I’m an introvert and what drives me is emotion, both in life and in my studio. This can be a strength and weakness simultaneously.   Just as our dream states create a landscape in which to work out issues, for me so does the workspace, the blank canvas.

For a good long while now I’ve been diverging from spending most of my time with my beloved pastels back to my brushes and wet media.    Its been an interesting journey and one I’ve been shy to share.     I have a new fondness for acrylics and mixed media, combined with casein, graphite and charcoal as well as my longstanding love for oils.    The challenge has been allowing myself to wander – the visual space of my abstractions in pastel is specific and immediate while the substrates and media in my “wet paint” studio encourages me to wander.    With exterior nature and the emotional landscape are at the core of these series, there is a degree of divergence in my path that I have surrendered to and embraced.

This summer I am featured in several galleries and the work in each show evolved around the theme of water.

At Robert Allen Fine Art in Sausalito, I have new pastels and acrylics featured in “Water Abstracted”Milwaukee, I have some earlier abstractions freatured  in “H2O in Art” David Barnett Gallery  and finally at Sewell Gallery in my town of Eureka I have work from my pastel series of abstractions on view.      Water is a fitting theme and common denominator not only in my recent work but as a metaphor for my recent past.

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Abstract Pastels at Robert Allen Fine Art

I’ve not been one to daily or weekly blog, maybe one day, but when I saw that I hadn’t put anything here since January of 2013 my own dropped.   Life does intervene in many ways that do not lend themselves to all aspects of an artist’s life and I suppose that is what has been happening here.    I am still here however and so happily blessed to have the support of my wonderful collectors, my trusted gallery reps and friends and family who keep me grounded.   2013 was what I would call a challenging time.  In retrospect the ups were sweet and the downs trying.   The passing of my dear dad at just shy of 96 was bittersweet.   I am finding myself talking with him every day – he’s so much more accessible now that he is solidly in my heart and mind, not 700 miles away from me.   I’ll write more about him later.   I’ve lots to write about so maybe this year will be the year of the weekly blog for me.   I have a backlog of essays in my swimming brain on issues such as a recent award from Pastel Journal Magazine, inclusion in a coffee table book by E. Ashley Rooney, arts advocacy, dealing with galleries, staying hopeful while physically impaired and the journey through the second half of my life as an artist.

For now its about a current show at Robert Allen – one of my favorite art dealers and gallery owners I’ve ever had the privilege of working with.   I have a selection of abstract pastels in a group show there  through March.  Robert has a beautiful gallery there – slightly off the main track where most tourists devote time.   He is also an approachable, personable guy who believes deeply in his artists.   If you are in Sausalito, his gallery is a must!

Until next time!    Thanks for reading!

 

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Spokes on a Wheel

“In Search of the Sacred Path”

Throughout my professional life as an artist my interests have gone in several distinguishing directions, somewhat like spokes on a wheel.   As the artist, to me they all relate and always have.    In the 1980’s I created pastel paintings of  very minimal suburbanesque architectural themes drenched in Southern California light.   At  the same time I was obssessed with pattern, dramatic surface building through mixed media that were pure abstractions.   Concurrently I developed series based on psychological themes surrounding what was going on in my personal life through simple iconography.     It was on retrospect that I realized I had been continuing to work within these themes and constructs with varying media and processes over the course of the last thirty years.   Spokes on a Wheel.

Within the last decade  I have been actively developing my landscape/architectural paintings that are set within a psychological framework.   Simultaneously, and perhaps more currently I have  returned with vigor to abstractions on nature.     This body of work, by design is deliberate and contemplative.   Recently I was interviewed by writer Jason Marak,  Art Beat writer for The North Coast Journal for  an article titled “Different But Not”  where I discussed the history and core nature of the work.      I have a full body of work of these abstractions being shown together for the first time that include pastels and some prints as well as a suite of oils/charcoal on canvas.    The show is at Plaza, Arcata through February with an opening reception tonight  January 11, from 6 to 9 during Arts Arcata!     Whereas the representational work evokes a psychological landscape for me, the abstractions, or deconstructions, allow me to let go of those burdens, as interesting as they can be and float within the spiritual, visual and philosophical space of ideas and marks and color and light.    They are about allowing the purely intuitive to stage the course of action.  I imagine the process of creating these as a bit like a piece of the collective subconscious sketching the ideas of what nature would become.   With the ending of the Mayan calendar and the planetary alignment that was 26,000 years in the making, these ideas interest me.   And again, like spokes on a wheel, they always return to the center.


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“My California Dream”

Coastal Ranch

There has been a lot going on in the studio , not the least which is the culmination of an exhibition of a body of work at Sewell Gallery in my city of Eureka, California opening next week with a reception Saturday Night, October 6 during Arts Alive!

Its always interesting putting together a show, especially one like this that has been in the works for a while.  Beyond the landscape theme there is a narrative surrounding each piece and the group of work as a whole.   There were motifs I had been exploring throughout the past few years and more that were revealed when looking at the body of work as whole.    The show title,  “My California Dream”  came as organically as the paintings.   In addition to many rides over our local scenic Highway 36, and 299, I had made several road trips from one end of the state to the other over the past few years crisscrossing every bit of California’s terrain, and the landscapes and architecture I depicted in the ensuing work reflected varying physical, emotional and spiritual states of  my own psyche,  from blissful happiness, contentment to sadness and overwhelm.   Working out these subtle states of mind and emotional being through the depiction of a landscape is not new for me but its never been more apparent to me how an attempt at creating something beautiful is cathartic and satisfying on a deeper level.       I find myself utilizing pattern (vineyards and farms and streams zig zagging through Elk River Valley) to achieve a sense of order.   In a similar way, trees create a sense of stability and strength  and the contrast of light emerging from darkness is a reflection of a changing inner mood.   The richness of pastel pulls it all together for me.  Like writing down a dream first thing in the morning, the goal is to capture  the essence of the emotion quickly and spontaneously and then continue to work out the formal elements at a more measured pace.

Its always curious what jumps out at me visually — being visually aware is a constant for me when traveling and so the compositions that end up being painted are very deliberate if not randomly odd.  A big round tree next to a farm on the highway,  rain puddles in the rows of a fall vineyard, a bleached white house in the summer sun, a peek of blue siding beyond an overgrown garden peeking out like a secret,  a single rain cloud hiding the sun over the ocean….there’s usually something else revealed  with the longer gaze.

I find I am continually drawn to rural architecture, farm houses and barns.   I might not be if they hadn’t become part of my everyday experience living in Humboldt County.  Now I identify with them.    There is a quiet solitude that attracts me to include specific architecture prominently in a painting, almost like portraiture.

Together, these paintings tell a story not of high drama but of the subtle ebbs and flows of life and its challenges and triumphs.    I can remember exactly how I felt whenI painted every one of these paintings.   The viewer may have a similar response or they may evoke something entirely different.    For me,  its a form of a solidified visual, psychological and spiritual memory, like a dream.   It is my California Dream.

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BACK IN HUMBOLDT

 
 

solace-of-my-winter

“Solace of My Winter” SOLD

 Well that was a life affirming road trip.   I’ve actually been back home for a week and a half  from our two week trip to Southern California and the LaQuinta Art Festival but had immediate work to attend to so am just now doing a post trip wrap up.  
Getting ready for shows always entails a lot of work and preparation but arranging all of the details necessary for a successful  show turned out to be  particularly daunting this time.   Fortunately life continues to be a learning process and the assimilation of experience and knowledge continues.   Some would think that the life of an artist is an easy one, but like any business, if it is indeed handled like a business, for every hour spent in the blissful glow of the studio light, being creatively expressive and steering clear of the left side of the brain-o-sphere, there are equivalent hours spent on the business side and the oft-stressful side of life.   As a smart girl product of parochial schools,  a worker bee since, well, forever, and an overly sensitive  Cancerian worrier I tend to be quite adept at utilizing   all facets of my psyche and left brain/right brain yoyo.    But being a creative, and an intuitively emotional sponge definitely has its perils along with the benefits.    Suffice it to say that though it has been a difficult year, it has been a creative time in the studio.    And that is a cool revelation to rediscover.   I say rediscover because its something that I’ve known in the past, when I was younger and less affected by the stress of business.    While preparing for this show,  I was also preparing for a solo show at the Sewell Gallery in Eureka, originally slated for April.    At some point in February it became apparent that this was not a solid plan.   Being a chronic “yes” person I was not considering my own limits and even the concept of  asking for a reprieve.   Thank goodness for revelations and support systems and the incredible graciousness and goodwill of my friends at Sewell.   I now have postponed my show for a future date to be posted soon.   Sewell Gallery is a beautiful gallery in my town of Eureka, California representing some of the finest artists on the north coast of California.  If on the north coast, its a definite place to stop in in Old Town.
Arriving in LaQuinta for this show was the equivalent of landing on Mars.   We drove through one of the worst dust storms the inland empire had seen in quite awhile.   Coming from the redwoods through the central valley to the desert, where I hadn’t been in years, and discovering a lush oasis set against these gorgeous sandy hills in a dry, 80 degree climate was surreal.   Fortunately the wind storm died down before we set up and it was clear sailing the rest of the show.    
Day One the Awards Jurors came around, introduced to the artists by a volunteer  and unlike other similar shows they actually engage the artists and ask questions.  I loved that.    At the Artists Party that evening I was Awarded  Best of Category in Drawing and Pastels assuring my attendance for the next two years, whoohoo.   I am proud of my new work so this felt great.    The Artists Party was beautiful!   The La Quinta Arts Foundation truly treats the artists well at this show and makes sure we know we are appreciated.      
At the show we were situated next to contempoary wood sculptor Jay McDougal and had a great time with him and his wife, artist Cindy McDougall.   Jay’s work is crazy beautiful.  Check out his website for a real treat.   Also at the show was fellow artist and friend Mark Kellar who in addition to being a seasoned painter is a long time  musician and voice over artist.    We all had a  great time.
The show wrapped up with good sales, good times and optimism for my return next year!   
Today there is a flood watch along the redwood coast and its been raining for days and will continue to.   I miss those sun drenched hills of the desert right about now.    Thank you La Quinta!

La Quinta Booth Shot

 

La Quinta Booth Second View

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jay McDougall

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Victoria Ryan