Open Studio til 8pm tonight #sthenri #montreal #seeart

Taken at Le Complexe du Canal Lachine

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A Breath of Spring in The Berkshires

Just home from a glorious three days spent in the cocooning green of the Berkshire Mountains. I feel nourished and replenished from the inside out. We found this enchanting
little cottage to rent just outside of Great Barrington and spent our days soaking up the beauty.

 

 Cloud Pool

Surrounding view of the living, breathing landscape.

It's been a while since I came out of the studio to paint "alla prima".

In direct contact with the breath of spring, I could feel the green soaking into my bones.

The birdsong was a continual ecstatic rhapsody that filled the air with the colors of sky.

 The more I paint green the more I feel red. The earth just opens up and spills her colors out in a joyful burst of energy that blends all my senses into one synesthetic experience.

A funny thing happens when one is in such direct dialogue with the surrounding environment. At moments, there is no separation between the painter, the painting and the painted...these are perfect moments when time stands still and briefly one is given a glimpse into the sublime.

 And then there are moments when I am so captivated by the sublime that I step heedlessly backwards, falling into the very cold pool and shocking every cell awake in my body with surprise!

 

 Every morning came rolling through the hills with slight variations in color, texture and light. It is a gift to have enough time to paint several versions of the same place. The rhythms and dynamics of place become more deeply felt as one grows closer in intimacy from spending time listening with the whole body.

Textural beauty, colorful sounds, shifting patterns...the breath of spring.

 Now I will take these paintings back to the studio with me and let them simmer, some are closer to completion than others. Some will become their own story and others will be the starting point for larger paintings. A soul satisfying romp through the Berkshire Hills.

Today on the easel

Taken at Berkshires, Mass.

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Stillness

There is a point where in the mystery of existence contradictions meet; where movement is not all movement and stillness is not all stillness; where the idea and the form, the within and the without, are united; where infinite becomes finite, yet not ~ Rabindranath Tagore

  

In the midst of a very full, activity laden day, I encountered stillness at the

side of this small lake. My whole being expanded and became still with the lake.

It was remarkable to feel this enormous stillness as

part of all the movement within me.

 

Time spent steeped in forest spirit
soothes the flesh though soul is bared,
in the stillness is remembrance
of how vast and loved we are.

~J Brehmner

 Gratitude to my friend, Dominique Normand for sharing her stillness of place with me today.

 

When I lived among the roots...

...When I lived amongst the roots
they pleased me more than flowers did,
and when I spoke to a stone
it rang like a bell.
~Pablo Neruda

Weaving Roots of Time, triptych 48" x 72" acrylic on canvas

Tree Poems 1 / 12" x 9" acrylic

Tree Poems 2 / 12" x 9" acrylic

Tree Poems 3 / 9" x 12" acrylic

Tree Poems 4 / 12" x 9" acrylic

Tree Poems 5 / 12" x 9" acrylic

El Duende, 48" x 24" acrylic

Lover's Limbs, 36" x 48" acrylic