A full year of intense painting and exhibiting. Last winter, up north in Mont-Tremblant I managed & operated a gallery of artists, reopened the "Art Barn" for the fourth summer season, had a solo show in Montreal "The Wilderness Within" and presented my paintings as part of an environmental conference at the University of Mount Royal in Calgary. I make my living from my art but sales are very low in the current economic climate and it has been a difficult year financially. Oddly enough, the painting is thriving in unexpected ways. I am constantly tempted to paint "what people may want to buy at any given moment" but whenever I do I fall into a depression that kills all inspiration so it appears that I must keep painting "the earth paintings" as they seem to want to be painted more than anything else!
Of course the present painting on the easel is always my "preferred" painting (whether it is driving me crazy or soaring me to heights of ecstasy!).However, these are the paintings that stood our for me this year as the pieces that spoke most clearly and showed me what I needed to know in the language of form, shape and colour. I am back in my studio today, this first day of 2011 and feeling grateful for a new studio, new love, new energy and a burning desire to paint all the pulsating life that sings, cries and dances it's way into existence through the brushes but only if I manage to stop the incessant "mind chatter". Mine is a visceral approach and the less I think and the more I dance the better the work is! My head constantly interrupts with new ideas and concepts and egocentric suggestions but as long as I turn up the music and dance all the babble stops and the paint flows in ways I never could have "thought" of.
Green Man, Earth Angel / acrylic on panel 48" x 60"
Singing Rocks, Howling Wolves / acrylic on canvas 54" x 72"
Rocks Attending River / acrylic on panel 18" x 22"
Rocks Listening to Moonlight / acrylic on panel 18" x 22"
The Edge / acrylic on panel 16" x 22"
Poems from the Stones / acrylic on panel 16" x 22"
Wild Earth / Diptych 72" x 48" acrylic on canvas
Weaving Roots of Time / Triptych 48" x 72"
Forest Qualia / acrylic on canvas Diptych 72" x 48"
4 comments:
These are a outstanding selection....
it sounds like you are a peace with life and "the right now"
May 2011 be a productive and happy year
This is such a lovely series of paintings. They make me feel so connected to the earth, just by looking at them.
Beautiful, Holly, and if you'd still like to "guest" in SunnyRoomStudio, just let me know what you have in mind. (I actually read direct messages on facebook; good way to reach me or on twitter. And I'm happy to send you my personal email, as well.) At any rate, looks like the year is off to a strong start for you! Best wishes, Daisy Hickman @ www.daisyhickman.com
I resonate with the idea of painting from within and not selling out to paint something that goes against your highest good. Our best work is that which we are meant to paint. For me, that never comes from my head.
~~julie susanne
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