Numinous Notes

My exhibition at Galerie de la Ville continues until this Sunday, April 21st. I love the venue and the space that these large scale works are given to breath as ONE body of work. 

A Day of Beauty

"To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else." 

~Emily Dickinson

Yesterday was a day of beauty from start to finish. I completed five days of early morning yoga, in spite of having to shovel my car out of a freak spring snowstorm for two of the mornings. This was a real challenge for me and I am so proud of having done it and my body and soul are thanking me for spending time with them in the early morning hours.
It seemed to set the tone for the whole day when I did this.

 

 

I seemed to notice the trees more than usual today. This is the beauty that lives outside my window in the park across the street. I am particularly enamored by this tree being but today when I came out my front door, she took my breath away.

  

 I then went on a journey across the city distributing invitations for my upcoming show, Numinous Notes, at the Galerie de la Ville One of my stops was the Stewart Hall Art Gallery on the Lakeshore where I stumbled into this exquisite exhibition by Kathryn Lipke, In Search of the Garden Eden Her varied work, techniques and mediums made for a dynamic and beautiful reflection on nature and our relationship with it.

  

"Stones hold the memory of both humans and nature itself, We carry this memory in our minds and bodies" I loved the way the artist traced the lines of the stone and river movement with her pencil.

Nest. This piece is particularly intriguing in that it is composed of emu eggs wrapped in shredded money.

This is a still from a video called "Ghost Vessel" that left me spell bound. Something about that burning structure floating down the frozen dark river that was very moving.

I then dropped by a friend's house to deliver some invitations and was stopped in my tracks by these intertwined cedar trees, the light and the snow created such striking patterns as these trees stood there emitting their beauty. Another gift from the trees.

Next stop was to meet my mom, dad and sister for a private viewing of my recently hung exhibition. I had not yet seen it myself and was delighted to find the paintings so well displayed. It is a joy to find your paintings breathing in a space that presents them well.

Next I hopped on a metro for a meeting downtown with ELAN English Language Arts Network and the launch of their new website Made au Quebec, a unique collaboration between English and French Cultural communities. On my way to the meeting I came across these patterns of light and texture. I could have spent hours looking and photographing.

Once more, on my walk home, the trees spoke to me. Here this gorgeous being reaches her snow lined limbs towards the moon. Her tangled branches sculpt the sky into shards of twilight blue and I am grateful for all that is.

"Beauty is not caused. It is." 

~Emily Dickinson

Art Bomb

One of the best things to come out of my long hours at the Artist Project was that I connected with the exciting on line art auction site: Art Bomb

I had submitted a couple of paintings, which will be showing up on the site soon,

so if you subscribe for the daily email you can bid on them when they do..

Breath of Spring / 24" x 30" / acrylic on canvas

River Solitude / 24" x 30" / acrylic on canvas

After chatting with one of the founders who came to pick up the paintings from me at The Toronto Artist Project I discovered she was looking for a Montreal curator to start a satellite sight in Montreal. Long story short, that Montreal curator is now ME!

This is such a fun project for me to jump on board with. I love everything about it but especially promoting and meeting other artists and viewing all the artwork.

I store, photograph and ship any work that sells from my studio so I am able to continue to paint while working with Art Bomb.

Looking forward to this great new adventure and hoping that if you are a Montreal artist you will be sending me some low res images of your work for submission.

If the work sells the artist is paid 50% of the sold price. Once accepted the artist merely drops the artwork off at my studio. From there the work is photographed, stored and shipped if sold. Sold or not there is lots of promotion and exposure for the artist to a targeted art audience of over 10,000 and growing daily.

                                    "...the art world in your inbox every day."

Abstraction

Beyond Reason / 20" x 16" / acrylic

Flight Behavior / 16" x 20" / acrylic 

 

Two surprises that came out of nowhere. A remarkably liberating process of flow, just following the colors, textures and shapes with no preconceived thoughts or ideas to lead me. I will always love painting the landscape but these two were such a joyful delight that I will definitely be doing more in the future.

 

 

 

Show Time

So here I am again, third year running, The Toronto Artist Project. If only I could explain how grueling these shows are on my body and soul. Yes, I love meeting new people and engaging in conversations about art and life but I hate the long hours of standing on cement under harsh lighting in front of my paintings as people walk by and peer at me, sometimes I feel like a wild animal trapped in a zoo.

This year I purchased a smaller booth and brought smaller pieces to minimize expenses and energy.  I have fabulous artists as neighbors which is always a bonus as we all help to keep each other bolstered through the long hours. It is a tremendously different energy to be alone in ones studio in front of the canvas as you wrestle and play with the emerging colors and shapes, then to be standing in front of the finished paintings watching people observing the work.

Sometimes I feel like screaming and pulling my hair out, sometimes I feel like protecting my vulnerable new works from the critical stares and indifference of the public. And then, sometimes, a beautiful soul connects to a piece and I remember why I do this.

 

Alder Ego

David Paul Bayles is a photographer who explores the tree + the human connection.

He also writes a tree/art blog called Alder Ego which is dedicated to the visual exploration of being human and living with trees. Created from and for the tree within.

"This blog’s mission is to share artworks by a variety of artists, working in a variety of media."

I am honored to have some of my paintings featured there this month:

From the Forest

The Artist Project 2013 Preview

A link to preview the paintings that will be at the Toronto Artist Project next week-end:

Preview of Paintings

Showing Up to Paint

I have been over flowing with paintings in the last couple months. In spite of a hectic schedule, many unexpected events and emotional clouts, I managed to carve out time to paint. Sometimes this had to be done with a very sharp sword.  I usually look forward to January and February as a time to hunker down in the studio and paint. The cold and the snow blowing outside the window as I turn inwards and draw from the images that emerge.

This year, there seemed to be all sorts of reasons to keep me out of the studio but somehow I managed to find a way back to those beloved brushes that help me to make sense out of this mad, crazy life.

There were times when I really felt that I couldn't cope with everything that was coming at me...here is the painting that resulted from a particularly emotional day.

Persephone's Ladder / 60" x 40" / acrylic on canvas

It was one of those days where a million emotions collided with a million thoughts and I felt briefly paralyzed, confused and unable to act.  I showed up at the studio anyway and through a blur of tears, literally threw paint at the canvas and clawed at the paint. You can read more about it here.

The next piece to emerge was this fierce warrior canoe, which actually began as a vertical tree but got carved into a canoe when I turned the canvas horizontally.  This piece contains the same strong emotions as Persephone's Ladder but now there is a safe harbor from the turbulence within the "canoe" and of course the moon is rising and guiding the way through a clear night.

Having navigated the rough seas of my own turbulent emotions, I now return to my landscapes with a new found energy and love of the earth, ever deepening as I come to terms with my own inner shades of darkness and claim them as part of myself.

As I conclude writing this post which began almost a week ago, I am happy to say that two of the most magnificent women just purchased this piece for their home. I am thrilled that the work reached out across the internet, drew them to my studio and into my life, for now I not only have the perfect home for this very charged and intimate painting but two inspiring new friends, who like the canoe, have helped to bolster me through rough emotional seas.