Still Point Arts Quarterly

and Still Point Gallery

Three of my pieces are currently in the online gallery for Still Point IV.
Out of that online show, several artists' work (including mine) will appear in the summer edition of Still Point Arts Quarterly, which is an artist-centered publication, on very nice paper, that includes poetry and prose in addition to visual arts.

transparency and overlap (thickness) repost

still trying to figure out where to go from this point.
It has certainly informed my work over the past three years,
but I want to engage this very simple idea more directly
with the two materials in this series of sketches

water spiral

12" x 12"
Acrylic


swirling swirling swirling and spinning

Transparent Wave

12" x 12"
Acrylic on canvas



more focusing on the transparency of water and how the movement of water,which churns up it's layers, are what often make it less transparent.

I went into this one remembering that moment just before getting swallowed up by a wave, sitting just below the surface, or on the edge of a river, looking down into a swirling current.

Bright light, big country

This is a repost for a friend so she can say "oof" at the bright colors. he he he
(openly hoping she responds)

Art and Water

time to update the artandwater main site with new art and a new look
that is the project for the rest of this winter
I should have the first update mid-February here and at
www.ARTandWATER.com

artandwater related

Corciano light

My first semester in grad school was spent in Corciano, Italy.
The light in September is absolutely INCREDIBLE. I lost my mind and all the intended ideas I had, and just surrendered to it. I had been looking for this for a long time.
I always painted at sunset or sunrise, watching the colors erupt from the earth as the sun hit the redorangepink level.
Low sun inthe snow mountains makes a beatiful effect of "alpenglow". In Corciano, there was a similar effect on objects, but not with winter sun. It was with late summer sun that wrapped around everything it touched.


There were a few olive trees that were different from the others. I could not tell if they were dying, or if they were picked too early, or something else all together. In the rising sun they formed a rudimentary cross. The red wall holds back the earth, atop of which rests a monastary. The gray-purple steel lamp post on the left framed the cypress tree, as if it were half of a composition in an altar piece. (notice the gothic arch shape to the lap post) Olive branch, cross, monastary, gothic arch shaped altar piece. It just had to be painted here, in the former Roman Empire. (could the yellow in the back be Elysian fields?)


We had a windy night, a little while before I saw the monastary cross.




Late in the semester, mid Fall, the light had changed. But, it would still shine brilliantly off the water that lay in the fields. It lay in rows, between plowed mounds, and relected the rose sunset, while the ambient light cooly circled everything else.

simple overlaps

difficult to see in the photo.... but I am amazed at how just the overlap of the transparent acrylic paint (over the pencil lines) can create such a sense of depth and layering. It's most likely because the image is so simple that the overlap and transparency have the ability to be on an equally important ground; whereas if they image was very complex that overlap and transparency would be relegated to an "oh yea, that too" kind of status.

Additionally, I am really excited how the acrylic maintains it's appearance of fluidity even once dry. I think that it dries fast enough, and has the proper viscosity to allow the streaks and variations to remain visible (as a record of both the motion of the brushstroke and the evident liquid form of the the paint)

I have played with ink before and it's a bit too flat. The acrylic emultion stands up, away from the paper a little bit. I just might have to go back and make more of these, and investigate this technique further as a way to explore some of the dichotomies that actually lead to a third state of existence.

fluid/solid
transparent/opaque(overlap)
motion/stillness

I'm really glad that I've been able to realize a new way (for me) to use acrylic paint, and it has opened up more ways to make paintings, while still actually using paint.