New Painting: Glade

Glade

I finished this painting two weeks before we left New York, so that's just over a month ago, in the flurry of activity that preceded our departure.  It is painted on a canvas that I covered first with cheesecloth for texture. This is a full blown "springtime" painting, with its riot of color bursting from a quiet ground. Just as we are about to celebrate the summer solstice and the first day of official summertime here tomorrow.

I'm seeing bits of discovery within this painting, passages that I am enjoying and looking forward to exploring more when I begin painting here....although I'm still slow to set up the studio. I am thinking that perhaps this will be a summer of gathering ideas for me instead of painting. I think of those times, the times of focus within, as sowing seeds for the crop from which I will harvest my inspiration and ideas when I begin working again. Sometimes that's just the work that needs to be done.

VisionWise Interview

I'm so honored to be featured as the interviewed artist this month on my friend Lauren's soulful blog VisionWise. You can read all of our interview right here. Her questions were insightful, interesting and really fun to answer! I hope you enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed doing it.

xo

John Cleese on Creativity

Oh my goodness, I just had to share this amazing video with you! I love his thoughts on honoring and making space for how our unconscious is in charge of your creativity.
I felt so inspired after watching this!

August break: origins

Every corner of my mind is bursting with heaps of inspiration from our time on the farm.
When I am there it comes in great doses, every where I look, every walk I take, every time of day. I realize more with every visit to the farm that going there each summer as a child hugely influenced my inspiration and my appreciation of the subtle details in nature. The hazy light brings back some of my earliest memories...the thrill of getting up at dawn to ride in the wagon on the back of my grandfather's tractor to the blueberry field...
walking barefoot on the moss in the forest...
flattening my body to peer through the underbrush, wanting to know the mysteries of the darkness in the woods...
chasing the flock of Guinea Hens and loving the way their spotted feathers flashed as they ran...
the crunch of the gravel on the farm's dirt road.
Like pieces of a puzzle all of these bits stir within me, reforming a whole that I glimpse in parts as I work in the studio, places that I access, worlds that I disappear into.
Senses alive and fully awake.
The world of childhood regained for moment.

Knowing

Knowing

Another new painting to share with you, I've been hard at work in the studio creating and creating. I have about 5 canvases in progress now and I began all of them with a wash of gradated blue background. I was thinking of the sea and the sky, and it was so fun to see what that deep blue became in each piece. I'd say this piece, Knowing, has a very atmospheric sense to it. I almost feel like there is wind blowing around those birds, do you feel it? This piece was inspired by that moment where you just know something, you have a sense of it, and it becomes more real within that knowing.

Prints of this painting are now in my shop here.

I hope that you are having a lovely weekend!

I dare you

This short video about women following their dreams is so inspiring. It is so good to remember that no matter what, YOU are looking at you...meaning that you are the one that you report to, you are the one that your dreams mean the most to, you are the one that bottles it up when you know you aren't living your full creative potential. Go on, I dare you.

New supplies

Oh the possibilities and wonder of new art supplies and a big roll of fresh paper. I truly do feel giddy walking into an art store.
My girl, at all of 2, loves to draw as much as I do, in fact its become a daily activity. I was recently inspired by my friend Kirsten (who has a wildly inspiring new blog) to go out and buy a lovely rainbow set of 100 colored pencils, new washable markers and a big roll of paper... all just for the kids. My little ones had art supplies, of course, but stepping it up with these new materials has opened up such a door to creativity, keeping things fresh and vibrant. Never underestimate the allure of beautiful materials laid out in a pleasing way...this works for all ages doesn't it!


These days I roll out a long piece of paper, covering the length of our whole dining room table, and Carys just goes wild. The gestures and freedom with her marks are so expressive and it is such a pleasure for me to watch her creating for just the shear joy of it!

Meeting

What would happen when the horse met the Pegasus? The earthly meeting the celestial. The grounded meeting the sublime. The mundane meeting the enchanted. The corporeal meeting the ethereal.

Would the horse learn to fly?
My daughter left these two on our kitchen table, set up just like this yesterday. I loved that their faces were almost touching in this gentle moment. It made me stop and think, about things big, and small.