Rocks, Rivers & Forest Pools

I am back with my beloved rocks again. I take these wild detours away from them and then all of sudden, there they are again! I am so in love with painting rocks! My paint brushes are smoldering from all their use today! Had the music cranked and literally danced my whole body into these paintings. They are side by side and both relatively large canvases so they are a joy to bounce back and forth from. Painting rocks is like building something with my hands. I once built rock walls for my gardens and it is a similar feeling, a feeling of constructing something, almost like sculpture. I collaged Washi paper (handmade japanese paper) here and there to add to the overall texture. I love to watch how the painting takes on a life of it's own and starts telling me what to do! At first I am unsure, full of doubt and just splash some paint on loosely to block in the composition but then all of a sudden the piece starts to speak and I start to dance! I just LOVE to paint when this happens!

Introvert / Extrovert

Here is the small watercolor that I did this fall and has been haunting me ever since. I have a sense of what is being communicated but can only guess how to articulate it:
A large vacuous & distracting figure protects or shields the shy but definitely more interesting inner figure. Both figures feel very intimate to me and my art process.

Dancing Without a Partner

This painting has about three other paintings underneath it, just like me, layers and layers of stories, but somewhere underneath the layers is my true Being trying to shine through. These other layers create a beautiful rich texture to work with though and I love the final result. Underneath is a forest, some rocks, moss and a lot of sadness. This delightful play of dancing light is what burst forth one day after the canvas had sat unfinished in my studio for months and months. It quite literally danced itself into existence!

Dance

Dance, when you're torn open,
Dance, if you've torn the bandage off.
Dance in the middle of the fighting,
Dance in your blood, Dance, when
you're perfectly free.

-Rumi