“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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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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“Solace of My Winter” SOLD
La Quinta Booth Shot
La Quinta Booth Second View
Jay McDougall
"Farmhouse Evening" - Private Collection Installation -Christmas 2011
Christmas was sweet this year. The kids came home and they’re both doing so well this year that our biggest wish in life has already manifested.
Now comes that distracting week where I really want to be back in the studio. Here’s hoping I get my wish by tomorrow. I’ve got some big shows to plan for including the La Quinta Arts Festival in March and a feature show at Sewell Gallery in April. I also have lots of paintings in my head that want to come out, two of which were started before the holidays. The truth is, the artist just wants to make art!
Thank you Lindy and Rob for sending me this beautiful pic of your mantle all dressed up with “Farmhouse Evening.” xxooo!
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This coming weekend should be fun. In addition to it being a 3 day holiday, the 4th of July is my birthday! No big whoop there but there’s always fireworks! Locally though, we have our first Saturday of the month’s Arts Alive and this month there’s a new gallery opening featuring some of the best of Humboldt’s artists. Located in a LARGE space previously occupied by our beloved Plaza Design which relocated to G Street. Jack Sewell, a local sculptor has taken over the space and along with his wife Amy they have done the leg work and homework needed to become not so small business owners in the form of this great new gallery. There was a soft, soft opening last Friday for the artists where we all gave kudos to the Sewells for taking on this commitment to the art community, drank wine, ate great food prepared by John Sallizoni and basically shmoozed and saw folks we hadn’t seen in a while. Here’s a link to an article in our local North Coast Journal about Jack and the opening of the gallery. The inaugural exhibition begins in July and I will have a few pastels to show including this new landscape.
And then fireworks! Have a Happy and Safe 4th!
"Into the Hills" 12x12" Pastel
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