Blog

When the call to isolate was announced, I was shocked and trudged along on the slow track not knowing what to do. Paint? Write? Photograph? Film a working process? Clean up? Paint! Yes! I decided to jump track and paint like nobody is watching. Because, well, nobody is watching.

Since then, the liberties I have permitted myself without feeling the need to be chugging on to the next event, rolling to the next show, applying to this art call and that, has been so freeing. I've been giving myself the-long-awaited pleasure of spending endless hours in my little quarters experimenting and learning new techniques, reworking old paintings and creating new works, without a clue or expectation (except hoping it would be good) as to what the results will be.

My studio is a bumpy mess. I've got rubber brayers, squeegies, house painting brushes and rollers, galkyd, neo-megilp (a mouthful to say--don't swallow), oderless thinners (keep away from your drinking glass), and ideas galore from the jittery-never-quiet-active-full-of-ideas-I'll-never-run-dry kind of mind racing by like the ground below a speeding vehicle.

Slow going at first, I pulled out some abandoned paintings of women started in January and feeling quite nervous about it, gave them a roll over, some scraping and sanding. I also started a new painting of a figure "Waltzing Water" and worked in layers letting them dry before applying new paint. I'm used to working Alla Prima (all at once) wet into wet paint, so waiting for something to dry is like trying to stop my train with a penny on the track. I start another figure "Dancing Veil" and while that is drying, a 30 x 60 Orca at Rubbing Beach. Picking up speed, I'm getting excited about the process, take out other paintings which are already 'finished' and start working on them! I'm like a runaway train without brakes. Hopefully this locomotive is looping around and around picking up speed and never having to stop. I'm blowing off steam!

Waltzing Water, Oil on linen, 24x20

Dancing Veil, Oil on linen, 24x20

It may seem like I'm all over the map with my paintings of orcas, women, and plein air, seascapes, landscapes, and gardens. But to me they are all hitched to one another, pulling with and pushing at the forces of nature constantly shifting and moving in the dance of life. Each work has a connection to nature, her beauty and her sacred offering and my appreciation of having the privilege of living with her.

The thrill of this adventure during a time of upheaval is revealing how we can all make the best of it by connecting to ourselves, making art, experimenting, being brave and hanging on without knowing when and where we will arrive.