When Smink in Dallas asked for some smaller paintings in the Nymphs series, I knew I was in for a challenge. It is not so simple to take a process that works well at one size and simply miniaturize it. For one thing, in this work the paint will continue flow and pool into the same size pool. It just behaves that way on the Yupo, and I can’t do much about it. For another thing, what has visual impact at one scale may not at another. The relationship between the paint flow pattern and the circles grid is critical. A couple of years ago I tried painting very small circles – half an inch diameter – in a grid but this somehow inhibited the flow of paint. Also, although we have all gotten very used to seeing small reproductions of paintings and imagining them to be larger, physical size really does matter in the way our bodies, our eyes and musculature, relate to what we see.
I decided to use a range of circle sizes and cut pieces out of large painted sheets, then combine them in almost a collage process. I have to say, although I love the four that eventually got finished, they did not come together as easily as the full-size Nymph paintings. Lots of struggle and decisions. But perhaps some new directions have emerged here.
Egeria - watercolor on Yupo - 40 x 50"
On October 17th an exhibit of my work will open at Smink in Dallas. Smink, an established importer of contemporary Italian furniture and design, has recently moved into a terrific space on Dragon Street, the art and design district, and will inaugurate their gallery space with this show! If you happen to be in Dallas, the reception will be from 5 to 8 p.m.
Hyale (Raindrop), my newest painting, will probably be hanging in the ZaneBennett Contemporary Art group show that opens on Friday here in Sant Fe. I certainly hope so. Six of the new watercolor paintings and six very small paintings were delivered to the gallery this week. I can’t wait to see which ones they choose to hang (there isn’t room for all of them). Also showing will be works by old friends: Madelin Coit, Helmut Lohr, Zachariah Reike, Joe Novak, and Jennifer Joseph. We all showed at EVO Gallery when it was still on Canyon Road, and still primarily supporting Santa Fe Artists. These are all artists of high caliber, and I’m proud and happy to be exhibiting work with them once more.
Of course, we have all evolved somewhat in the intervening years – the years that correspond to my illness – so the whole show will definitely be fresh and full of surprises. I’m stoked!
Also opening in the gallery that evening will be another group show, of local video artists’ work, and downstairs, a show by an artist, well-known in Europe, who I’ve never heard of and can’t remember his name. If the work is strong, I will remember his name forever.
River Spirit, painted last spring, is from a series of horizontal paintings. I was noticing how the flow of paint – the thin and thick of it – could suggest moving water. One of my concerns was to contain that visual movement within the boundaries of the painting, so that the image completes itself. It is a still point.
River Spirit watercolor on Yupo 23 x 54″
Aganippe #1, watercolor on Yupo, image size: 35x36 in.
Welcome to my blog. I’ll be writing about my paintings, my art practice, and posting images of work as it gets made.
The series named for Greek nymphs (and one for a local river, Tesuque) mark my emergence from about four years of illness, when I could paint only sporadically, and my personal focus was on healing, if I could focus on anything at all. In another post, I plan to write about the gifts I gleaned from that illness, but now it’s time to talk about painting. These are watercolor on Yupo “paper,” a translucent sheet recently developed specifically for watercolor. Brushed on Yupo, the paint does not absorb into the surface, as it would with regular paper, but remains on top to dry, and as it dries, it moves over the slick plastic to pool in any low areas, just as river water will pool in deep places. This pooling is beyond my control, altho I have begun to learn how to guide it a little.
I have come to these paintings through experimentation and noticing, and following the thread of my interest. Obviously, I’m interested in natural processes, especially how they interact with obstacles, in this case, the painted-on circles. Paint pigment carried in water demonstrates its own process very visually, and has so many counterparts in the natural world: rain puddles, food stains, kitchen spills, bathtub rings, pools left as a stream dries up in dry weather.
My process seems to me to embody the essence of allowing. A grid of circles is painted on the paper, and the paint is allowed to flow. What a yin way to create! Water with earth (pigment), the yin elements in Chinese tradition, suggests nurturance, support, flow, change and healing. Water supports life by allowing it to flourish. So these paintings are indicative of my personal healing, and offered to the world as spaces for healing, inspiration, and spiritual support. They are as beautiful as I can make them. They present a balance between structure – the grid of circles – and fluidity.
Like the Chinese, the ancient Greeks associated water with women. Each one of their streams, springs and wells, even their wet marshy places, had its own female deity, a Naiad, a fresh-water nymph. The Nymphs were personified as lovely young women, some with powerful healing or oracular abilities. Aganippe presided over a well that was sacred to the Muses. She could inspire people who drank her water. Eupheme was also associated with the Muses as their nurse.
Eupheme #1, watercolor on Yupo, image size: 35x37 in.
