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Winter Garden, watercolor on layered synthetic paper (Yupo), 41 x 55″
I have no end product in mind when I begin a painting. First I pin up one or two painted sheets of transparent color and notice how they look together. Then I continue to add or subtract sheets, shift placements, notice rhythms, and search for a certain feeling of flow and harmony across the composition. I’m exploring the pictorial space, rather than aiming at a pre-determined or pre-visulaized outcome. This process allows spontaneity and accident to occur at any and all stages of art-making.
People have asked if I listen to music while I’m working. No, I don’t, because in a sense I’m listening to the painting and it sort of talks to me; “I’m too heavy on the right,” “Try some yellow,” or “Make me wider.” Listening to music is reserved for when the composition is set and I’m sewing the Yupo sheets onto a mat board, a rather brainless activity.
A consistent series of paintings results from methods and principles that remain the same; it’s a pathway. Sometimes it is a one-color path. Attention to intuition and impulse guides me. Right now I’m on a slow journey through a rosy-colored garden. This garden opened its gate to me when I began to consciously heal some physical health issues in 2017. Within it, joy, warmth, growth and change are nurtured and supported. It’s a refuge from the chaos of politics, toxic relationships and any kind of worry – a place to just quietly be. My hope is that you, the viewer, will also find solace and renewal in these spaces.
Rose/Heart/Flame, from a series of small paintings completed last spring, is now on view at Gebert Contemporary, 558 Canyon Road. The more I think about this work, the less I want to define it for you, the viewer. Let the shapes be anything, from fire to rose petals, and let them speak directly to your heart.
Opening in October, the New Mexico Museum of Art included some of my work in the Alcoves 16/17 #5 Exhibit. The Alcoves exhibitions focus on current work by contemporary NM artists and change every 7 weeks. It is truly amazing how many accomplished, exciting artists are working here. 16/17 #5 happened to include two of my cohorts in the Lady Minimalists Tea Society, Shaun Gilmore and Signe Stuart, along with Kelly Eckel and Mira Burack. Curator Kate Ware did an outstanding job of selecting artists whose work is strongly related and set up a 5-part dialogue among our individual spaces in the large hall of the museum.
Kate chose 5 paintings from the Elegy series that I made after my husband, Wayne, passed away. As always, the work is watercolor on translucent Yupo paper (a synthetic paper). Elegy #19, above, epitomizes my intuitive, receptive painting process and conveys the mixed emotions of grief, calm, and wonder I was feeling at the time (2014).
Here I am speaking to a crowd at the Museum about my work.
The show is down now, but was chosen as one of the 10 best art events of 2016 by the New Mexico critic for art ltd. magazine. Thanks, Jon Carver! We also got positive reviews in the Santa Fe New Mexican Pasatiempo magazine, THE Magazine, and Visual Art Source, an on-line publication.
River/Flow/Chart #7
I’m pleased to announce that Gebert Contemporary will be exhibiting three of my River/Flow/Charts in a group show that opens Friday, July 15. The other featured artists are Udo Noger, John Nelson and Keiko Sadakane. Please join me at the opening reception from 5 to 7:00 or come by the gallery this summer. Gebert is on Canyon Road (behind Chiarosuro) and there is parking – though don’t count on it for the reception.
In just a week I’ll be at the reception for my show at SMINK in Dallas. Jennifer Smink asked me to make something really big for the exhibition, and here it is – Water Chart – about 53 x 64.” It was a great challenge to work on this scale, especially because the supports (foam core and mat boards) had to be specially ordered and everything took longer than I expected. Getting the whole composition to flow and connect and to balance depth with expanse presented new problem at this size. There are multiple dimensions to perceive here, not just height and width but layered depth, as some squares are three layers deep – hard to convey, really, in a photograph.
The reception will be next Saturday evening at SMINK, 1019 Dragon Street, Dallas. Please come by if you are in the area. sminkinc.com
With color as soft as a breath, Chi Gong #4 embodies the flowing energies of chi. Just looking at it helps me breathe more deeply and freely. But you don’t have to understand the concept of chi to “get” this painting; its expansive vertical flow and airy blues are there for anyone to feel. Or simply enjoy its beauty in a visual way. This is my gift to you, posted just before Christmas.
Chi Gong #8 – watercolor on synthetic paper
My fourth one-person show at SMINK in Dallas opens on Saturday, October 13th. I’ll be exhibiting work from the Chi Gong series as well as other paintings with repeating horizontal bars of color. If you are in Dallas, please come and see the show.
As explained in the post before this, I do chi gong, or energy practice, before beginning to paint in the studio. Among the many forms of chi gong, I was lucky enough to learn a very yin, or allowing, form that addresses not only the physical but also the mental/spiritual self. It’s the perfect preparation for the art I do, centering and opening me to the energies of the present moment.
The chi gong practice begins with specific postures and the mantras that accompany them, then the body is simply allowed to move of its own accord. Lately I’ve been appreciating how much this form has influenced my art process, which is to set up specific rules of shape and size, etc., then let the paint move. It requires a certain faith that the outcome will be appropriate, and it’s never the same twice.
I’m happy to report that this painting, Thanis #12, has been sold at Smink. This painting went together so fortuitously, with such happy accidents, that it was a “gift from the Gods.” Or should I say that Spirit had a hand in it? At any rate, it’s been one of my favorites, and I hope the collectors enjoy it immensely. Thanks to Jennifer and Autumn at Smink who have been supporting and promoting my work.
Is Golden Curtain a vertical or a horizontal painting? I originally published it on the “Paintings” page as a horizontal, 41 x 55,” but this morning it suddenly demanded to be vertical. What do you think?
The composition of an abstract painting, or any painting for that matter, should work in all directions, although the subject matter of say, a still life, makes sense only one way. I remember my dad turning his paintings around to check their compositional strength and sometimes changing the orientation altogether. This is a practice worth continuing, but sometimes I… forget. So now I’m wondering if this painting should be signed in two directions.
In “Green Light River” I have continued to combine sheets of small circles with overlays of horizontal bars. The combination feels rich, almost Romantic, to me in relation to the paintings with just one kind of shape in them. These combination paintings read as abstract landscapes, with the bars suggesting rock strata or multiple horizons. My materials – watercolor and synthetic paper – and repetitive process unfold in unexpected manifestations, bringing surprises and freshness into the studio.
I think winter is my favorite time to paint. There are fewer distractions in the garden or the cultural life of Santa Fe, and the light turns softer. On overcast days, there is a milky, indirect quality to it that seems to seep into the studio, enclosing me in the world of color/paint/transparency.
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