Gracie's #spain

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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

Revisitng the Rocks

Singing Rocks, Howling Wolves / 54" x 72" / acrylic on canvas

Alchemical Nature / 54" x 72" / acrylic on canvas

These two paintings were done about a year ago but I was never completely satisfied with them. They got put back in the racks and have sat there "simmering" all this time. I pulled one of them out with the intention of covering it with gesso and beginning a new piece. However when I saw it again I realized how much I have learned about painting in the last year and I wanted to work with this old friend again. All the problems that had remained unresolved were no longer problems but a joy to "let go into". Painting is like that, so much is learned through living life and soon all that we are, and all that we become flows into the work.

As the artist Judy Cheng says, "You begin to see beyond the subject and color, and eventually you just allow the paint to move you.  Painting has given me a different perspective of looking at your surroundings. I see art in everything and it inspires me to continue to create, experience and enjoy."

I couldn't agree more, painting opens my heart and mind to realms that I would never have accessed on my own.

In Honor of the Earth Today ~ 3 Rock Paintings

Feminine Cocoon / 40" x 60" / oil on canvas                                                                               Buy This Painting

Forest Qualia / diptych 72" x 48" / acrylic on canvas       Buy This Painting

Green Man, Earth Angel / 48" x 60" / acrylic on panel board                                                   Buy this painting