From the Studio
Some of my recent work is currently on display at Friesen Gallery in Sun Valley, Idaho. Two of the paintings have trees as their subject, trees being a long-time love and concern for me. The Forest Breathing series represents my prayerful intention for the health of the forest, and by extension, for the planet.
During the covid quiet I found myself making very small paintings out of scraps. After awhile they became addictive – I just couldn’t wait to get to the studio to see what combinations of scraps were there, waiting to be discovered and composed. This one is Shift Poem #24, mat size 16 1/4 x 32.”
Here’s Shift Poem #29, 16 14 x 21″. The title Shift Poem reflects this time of change on the planet, with seemingly endless crises and disorder in all of our lives. The poems are intended as little antidotes to the unease of navigating daily changes, offering intimate spaces of contemplative harmony.
This is Shift Poem #32, matted to 16 1/4 x 18 1/5″
This summer Friesen + Lantz Gallery in Sun Valley, Idaho, is featuring my exhibition “The Healing Garden.” In this installation shot, “Dragon Flying with Broken Wing” hangs in the alcove.
The show includes work from the 2014-15 Elegy series as well as more recent paintings. You can see the catalogue at FriesenLantz.com, or if you happen to be in gorgeous Idaho, the show will be up until August 2nd.
I have just finished a series of paintings that are connected to my feelings about Ukraine. This is “Always beginning/for Ukraine #4,” watercolor and thread on layered translucent Yupo paper, 40 x 50.”
Finding words for these paintings may be a useless exercise. They are what they are – a swirl of paint – focused energy – soothing colors of nature – perhaps hope for the future. Below is “Always Beginning/for Ukraine #8,” 40 x 44.”
And one more, “Always Beginning #5, 41 x 40”:
Turchin Center for the Visual Arts in North Carolina is hosting a show of selected work that covers the years from Wayne’s death through my recovery from breast cancer, from 2014 to 2018. The exhibition presents a narrative of healing; heart, body and spirit, describing in abstract terms an arc of personal growth from grief to joyful connection with life.
This exhibition aligns with my core belief that art can be enriching and therapeutic, beautiful and inspirational. The artist and the viewer can both participate in a transformational journey.
For a video walk-through of the exhibition, use this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHWZ0uk3mvQ
The exhibition is open now and runs through May 8th. The Turchin Center for the Visual Arts in Boone, NC has a website here: www.tcva.org
Gebert Contemporary here in Santa Fe is featuring some of my paintings. Gebert is a beautiful gallery where every artwork is able to shine. Here are two of my paintings from the Parallel Divergence series with a wood sculpture by Munson Hunt. I am intrigued by the visual correspondence between the lines in the paintings and the bare branches of the little tree outside the window, almost as if the paintings are portraits of trees turned on their sides. Continuing the theme is Munson’s sculpture, cut and shaped from a dead tree trunk.
If you are in Santa Fe you are invited to see the work! Located at 558 Canyon Road, behind its sister gallery, Chiaroscuro.
“Stitching Clouds to Sunlight” was commissioned by clients at Friesen Gallery, Sun Valley, Idaho. At 48 x 70″ it is definitely the largest watercolor painting I’ve attempted. As always with a commission, I made 2 paintings so the clients could choose, and here is the other one, “Sky Garden.”
SMINK Art and Design has opened a new show titled “Unpacking Paper” that includes some of the small paintings I composed in the last year. These were such a pleasure to make and I’m glad to be sharing them with the wonderful Smink sisters!
Shift Poem #2, one of the small works that came out of the covid quiet time, is now at SMINK Art and Design in Dallas for their works on paper show. It has been fascinating to work at this small scale. It puts the focus on details in the paint “application,” which is not applied at all but simply allowed to settle into colored pools on the paper and then cut into pieces. Getting the balance right in something that invites very close viewing is a challenge I enjoy. A tiny shift in placement can mean the success or failure of the piece.
This painting, Mineral Roses, from 2018, recently sold at Friesen Gallery in Sun Valley, Idaho. The painting is 40 x 44″, watercolor on layered translucent Yupo paper, attached to a white mat with thread, and is one of the last of a series of healing paintings from my journey to clear breast cancer and grief.
Thank-you, Team Friesen, for your appreciation of my work, your loyalty, honesty and support for the arts!!
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