Radiance

In my studio, on my mind, in my world

Enjoying the glow of autumn

Radiance

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.

New Painting: Thaw

 Thaw

A new painting about opening up to change, to opportunity, and glorious new beginnings.

I'd say that's pretty spot on for our life right now....what is keeping us going is holding on to our vision of the life that we will build in Charleston and all of the new beginnings that this adventure holds.

Today the packers will come to pack everything that we have not packed already, and then they come tomorrow to move everything out. We are living out of suitcases, and then yesterday someone stole Frank phone and wallet out of his studio, which is going to make these last two days so much more complicated as now he'll be running around replacing and canceling everything that was in there!

Feels like we are being cracked open to the core of who we are in these last few days, but the biggest thing that I have been feeling is the love for all of my dear friends here. That is the biggest thing,
Love.

Mantra

Another new painting...

 Mantra

So fun to make mandalas when I really should be packing....6 days to go, aaaahhh!

Universe

Universe

"Everything that exists, has existed and will exist. The totality of everything that exists."

For the past two weeks, leading up to our big party, I have been finishing up a new group of 5 paintings. It felt so good to be in the studio doing focused work while everything else surrounding our move feels like it is swirling around me, I just closed the door to my studio and started painting! I'm really excited to share this new work with you, and I'll be adding prints to my shop over the next few days.

My favorite part about this new painting is the tiny moment of this little golden star,

Sanctuary

Sanctuary

I just finished this new painting, I'm getting a lot of new work finished up for our show on May 7th. If you are in NYC we'd love for you to come, here is all of the info...

Courage

Courage

Do not go where the path my lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Prints of this just finished painting are available in my shop here.

May you all walk forward in Courage and Faith!

xo

Painting of the week: Unfurling

Unfurling

Even though we had what I hope is our last snow of the season today I can feel it, spring fever is setting into my soul. Getting my hands into the dirt to plant last weekend awakened my hibernating spring self, now I'm wanting to wake up to sunshine and sandals each day!
All of that for now is being channeled into the studio where it manifested in this new painting about waking up, taking a deep stretch, and unfurling into all of the potential with in.


As we have been unfurling into our new selves, the ones who are moving from Brooklyn in less than 2 months, I've felt myself needing more times in which I can be deeply pensive. Also, there is a heaviness that I know many of us have been feeling for Japan recently. I have been isolating myself from much of the news coverage, but I have seen enough to haunt me. Following the tsunami just after Christmas in 2006, I remember feeling similarly helpless and deeply saddened, imagining my own children being torn away from me in a wave of water as I had heard interviews with parents who had lived that nightmare. The horror that people in Japan are living right now is too much to bear.
Besides donating to the Red Cross I also came across this site, The 1000 birds Project, which was just begun by a Japanese artist and blogger living in England. She is making 1000 ceramic (and cute!) birds that she will sell online, donating all proceeds to the relief effort in Japan. I'm looking forward to getting a few when her online shop is set up, which should be any day now.

Angel

Angel

I just finished this new painting, Angel. Each time I complete a painting I feel like I've had a love affair with it through the work, I stare at it and remember the application of each layer, each mark, the planning of each drip. I find every excuse to step into the studio for one more quick glance, or a long gaze. I am particularly happy with how the washes in the environment of this piece turned out. I wanted it to feel very light and airy yet to have a palpable weight to the space and I feel like I got there with it in all of the layers. I am especially happy with the black washes on the big butterfly/moth, they turned out exactly as I envisioned them in my mind's eye.

This week Frank and I have been working hard on space clearing in our big studio space. We have been doing the difficult work of sorting through years of our paintings and drawings, while deciding what we need to hold onto, and move with us, and what it is time to let go of. We are enjoying the lightness that comes with making space, while there is still much work to be done! I'll post some pictures of our big clear out soon.

I've also been missing my "Painting of the Week" postings, so I've decided to bring those back, this is the first one.

Cheers!

Dreaming Owl Treasure Boxes

I recently found some heart shaped paper mache boxes from Germany at our local craft store, something about their sweet shape and blank outside were begging me to paint them. So I bought three, and had so much fun!

The dreaming owls were inspired by this adorable book, Owl Babies, that my kids have been wanting to read a lot in the evenings. I gave Jasper and Carys each one of these boxes, filled with candy hearts on Valentine's day morning. I know they'll find lots of little treasures to put in them.

As I worked on these I was also thinking about this frozen world that is my reality this winter, with huge snow drifts, and ice patches, everything feels like it is hibernating, but soon (yes, please soon!) everything will begin waking up to springtime....so that is filling these little paintings too.

I've added this last one to my shop. I just want to hug that little dreaming owl snuggled in his tree. 

On the back of each one I added a heart with a branch in the middle, growing. Then Frank finished them off for me by applying a layer of Lacquer to each. These really make me feel that spring can't be that far off now,

and they feel like the perfect spot for storing precious things.

Time and Distance

I've been working on a couple of new paintings with this idea in my mind of Time and Distance, the idea started when my brother left after our Thanksgiving visit, to return to his home across the sea in England. I was thinking about how undimmed our childhoods are to us when we are together, how time does not matter for us as we always pick up at the same spot with each other. I have other friends like that as well, and I'm sure you do to. Those are the special people, what ever you call them.....a soul sister, a true companion, a dear friend, a soul's mate (and not just the romantic kind)....these relationships are some how outside of time and place, they can be across great distances and still remain strong. These thoughts were swimming in my head as I made these,

Day and Night

Time and Distance

OK, I know that this is silly but, I guess that as I was seeing them with different eyes, I did not realize that they are so appropriate for Valentines Day (read: big hearts) until just last week! So, I figured it was a good time to add them to my shop, you can check them out here and here.

Union

Union

Happy February friends! In celebration of Love, and with the approach of Valentines Day (I can't believe it is around the corner already), I have added prints of this new painting to the shop. This is one of my paintings that has already sold at my show at Swallow, which is still up through the end of February.

I'm also offering a Valentines discount of 10% off of every order placed in my shop through February 14th, just enter code LOVELOVE at checkout!

Through the Darkness

::Winter's breath blows cold and swift,
while we sit together,
waiting patiently for the sun's return,
the earth's rebirth,
through the darkness::

I'm sneaking up on the 200th sale in my shop, only two sales to go, I'll send a special surprise "something" to the person who is the 200th sale!

I've just added this wintry painting, Through the Darkness, to my shop for the first time, right here. Sending you wishes for a warm wonderful weekend!

xo

Origins

 Origins

This is one of the three new paintings that I finished last week, just before my show. It was inspired by this picture,

 that I took on a walk at dawn on my family's farm in Ashville, NC, and by this post, both from last August.

When I finish a painting I usually like to sit with the image for a bit, to let it sink in, to digest it. I feel like I am still sitting with this one, there are so many things that I love about it, including the graphic simplicity.

The Opening of my show on Thursday night was wonderful, so many old friends surprised me by making a appearance, and it was especially sweet to hang out with one of my closest friends who flew out from California to be there. I had so much fun and will post some pictures soon!

Sending you wishes for a beautiful weekend!

xo 

Gratitude

Gratitude

Things we can't recall

Things We Can't Recall

"And I believe in love. And beauty. I believe that every single person has something they find beautiful and that they truly love. The smell of their child's hair. the silence of a forest, their lover's crooked grin. Their country, their religion, their family. And I believe that if you follow this love all the way to its end, if you start with the thing you find most beautiful and trace its perfume back to its essence, you will perceive an intangible presence, a swath of stillness that allows the thing you love to be visible like the openness of the sky reveals the presence of the moon."

This quote is from Geneen Roth's book Women Food and God: An Unexpected Path to Almost Everything which is rocking my world right now.

Things We Can't Recall is a new painting about those details of the things that we find most beautiful, that permeate us until only the trace remains because in time, we have become them and they have become us.
It is about the distant echo of a heartbeat. The trace of a scent long forgotten. A quiet dear voice.

Marrakesh

Marrakesh

Sometimes when I am working on a large group of new paintings I have a couple in progress that are pure fun, that I jump in and out of when I need a light hearted romp to play with color. Marrakesh is such a painting, built on daydreams and fancy. I've been loving this blog about life in Marrakesh for a while, and some day dream of going there. I'm picturing sitting by a lotus pond on a blindingly sunny brilliant day,

You step inside to the cool of the shaded courtyard,

Where the soft sound of the trickling fountain refreshes you, but there are surprises waiting for you through the courtyard door, beckoning you out again,

Out onto the winding, dusty streets, with crumbling walls and inspiration in every direction.

Out into the dark bazaar, where light sneaks through the slatted ceiling and exotic wares of every kind catch your eye.

OK, OK, enough day dreaming*. I'm snapping out of it and heading back to the studio. Sending you lovely weekend wishes. Prints of Marrakesh are now available here.

One last note...I had a nice surprise this morning, my new painting Cinder and Smoke, along with another of my paintings called Essence, were featured on the front page of Lovely Clusters in this beautiful spread...

*I took all of the "Morocco" photos at Epcot in their version of Marrakesh, a pretty cool place to wander around and daydream.

Cinder and Smoke

Cinder and Smoke

In the midst of my flurry of studio activity here I am seeing light at the end of the tunnel as I am putting the finishing touches on multiple paintings this week. I am so excited to share them with you over the next few days. The first one, Cinder and Smoke is so close to my heart right now, I'm completely enamored with it especially with those turquoise horses!

As I was working on it I was thinking about things that drift away from us as we grow and mature, as we let go of things (parts of us even) that we no longer need, to make room for what is coming into our lives. Moving ever forward.

I went to see the movie "Eat, Pray, Love" this past August, since I loved the book I was so excited to see the movie, but honestly as often happens to me when I see the movie version of a book that I love, the movie felt a bit one dimensional and left me a little cold. The most exciting part of going to see the movie came during the previews, as I was watching the preview for a movie called "Secretariat", the female character was asked, "Why are you doing all of this?" and she replied, "It is about life being ahead of you, and running at it!". Something about that line gave me chills and has stayed playing over and over in my mind.

So this piece has that idea in it too, it is about life being ahead of you, and running galloping full speed to embrace it.

Prints of Cinder and Smoke are now available in my shop.

Winged Blessings

 As I've mentioned over the past few weeks, I have been working on a series of small turquoise paintings, and if you've been following along you got a sneak peak at some of them in my turquoise postcard set that I released a couple of weeks ago.

 A group of them developed into what I am calling my Winged Blessings series, they grew out of my longstanding desire to work again with the blooming lotus flower from my painting Blessing along with the ache that I've been feeling to work quickly on a few paintings. 

The thrill that I feel while I am working quickly and able to finish a painting within a day (or two) is like no other, the pieces that develop feel fated, like each element was meant to be just how they turn out. Since there is no time to "over think" those quick pieces I feel that they get me out of my head, so they become an exercise that I like to turn to when I have been putting in long hours in the studio, which I have been doing lately as I'm getting ready for a solo show coming up in December.

Winged Blessing {rising sun}

When I spend hours in the studio painting time passes quickly as I find myself in a waking dream state, painting as my mind wanders down well worn mental roads, even while also staying focused on the task that my hands are completing. The energy of these waking dreams infuse all of my work, I think of it sometimes as the place in which I feel fully whole, in which everything makes sense, in which I can do my most clear thinking, and understanding. With this series, as I painted, my mind was focused on thinking of sending blessings, sending joy, wanting these Winged Blessings to carry magical wishes to the recipient. With wishes on their wings they remind you that you are brave, passionate, vibrant and beautifully alive, and that...

Winged Blessing {sunset}

Your dreams are always worth pursuing!

 Winged Blessing {golden glow}

I love the hope that I see in them, and I already have one sitting in my little personal alter on the window sill in my studio. 

These are the first of a group of originals that I am planning to add to my shop over the coming Holiday Season. You can find them here, here and here.

Another thing that I love about working on small pieces quickly is that I am able to offer them priced very reasonably, that makes me so happy since I love for my originals to go out into the world!

Wishing you deep joy and deep peace on the glorious weekend.

xo