Drying time...days!

Work in Progress.

I am waiting for these canvas to dry, so I can apply the next layer without disrupting, what is soon to be underneath. There are many techniques I have found over the years to build depth and 'patience' is definitely one of them! It helps that I usually have 4-6 canvas on the go at anytime, so I can work on 1 or 2 each day while the others dry.

The longer you can leave between layers, the drier and more stable the color you have applied. Additional coats change layers. Each layer a dimension of 'push and pull' in itself and then, how it relates to the existing layers... and on and on.....

Sometimes, I'll deliberately paint a second coat before the first is dry, so as to watch the interaction and the paint merge or blend. And, I love to see what effect gravity has over the paint, texture and fiber, pulling waves of color in a direction, movement captured in paint. That's what painting is to me, a visual record of the dialogue, between me, the canvas and my paints!

These both began as very light works but I have been exploring the 'shadow self' and it seems that is translating onto the canvas. There is still much light to be found among the shadows.

View in progress video

Once again, I'm repeating techniques in new ways. These works have a touch of my early 'Deep End' Series, with their Ultramarine glazing but painted in area's, not over the whole. There is a patchwork relationship in the overlapping layers and the original 'Deep End' pulp fiber, in the textured ground in both paintings. I think the next coat or two will consist of a little pigment (color undecided) and glaze. The above are works in progress still, but in the final stages, or so it feels right now. I haven't heard 'Step away from the canvas!' -yet.

'Australian Gold' is on her way to Miami!

I am pleased to say 'Australian Gold' has found her way to Miami, Florida.

I adore the lady who has purchased it. She has a couple of my works now and I can see a thread in this piece adding well to her collection. Her previous pieces that hold the energy of risk and reward. Each piece was a new style emerging within it's original series. An offshoot in a new direction. As with this one.

'Australian Gold' was born from finger painting and finished with a palette knife. The palette pushed and pulled and markings came and went. Always the reveal and conceal. This painting is step further along the palette knife path, than 'The Fog Series'. It doesn't stop at gestures and ephemeral markings. It layers and builds texture in places leaving peek-a-boo windows (a recurring theme in my painting) of the process intact, as a visual record of how each layer adds to the whole. . I added two final layers after I thought she was complete. The urge just comes and needs to be expressed, always at the risk of losing what is already apparent. This time in Zinc White and Australian Gold. I am glad I did. Below is the photo log of the various stages of her making. I don't always photograph each stage but in this case, I really wanted to. I hope you enjoy seeing the process. I wish I could keep them all.

'Australian Gold' (1st stage)

'Australian Gold' (2nd stage)

'Australian Gold' (3rd stage)

In a sense I can, vibrationally they all still exist as one, 'Australian Gold'

'Secret's of The Fog' triptych has landed in it's forever home!

'Secrets of The Fog' triptych Oil and pastel on canvas 16" x 40" (x3) 2015

'Secrets of The Fog' triptych Oil and pastel on canvas 16" x 40" (X3)

'Secrets of The Fog' triptych Oil and pastel on canvas 16" x 40" (x3)

I am pleased to announce 'Secrets of The Fog' triptych has arrived safely to it's new home in Dallas, Texas! I was holding my breath waiting for confirmation, as Dallas has been in another Ice Storm and I hoped delivery would be successful and safe for all. There is nothing as rewarding as a client who sends a message of 'loving the paintings even more in person' than online. In honesty, it is a relief but also a moment of deep sharing of yourself with another.

When someone resonates with a work you have made, it is very personal. It is a big part of who you are as an artist to create and there is naturally a bond with your work but when someone else has a connection to it also and you can see how it effects them, it validates the energy that is actually housed inside the work, the energy you send out in the world as an artist. So wonderful when someone is deeply touched and appreciates the feeling it awakens in them. I am not adverse to people buying art to match their furnishings, I know some artists hate that but I have no judgement on why someone buys a work and to be honest I feel it belongs with them for the same reason as someone who buys a work because it speaks directly to their core but maybe they are just less conscious of the deeper connect.

I am sure the paintings do their job (energetically) regardless but when someone really 'gets it' and feels their heart flutter , it is amazing, a real high- only matched by the feeling in the studio when after weeks or sometimes even months, a painting finally comes together and all the layers make sense and you know it is complete! I have enjoyed every minute of making this triptych and also the process of getting to know my new client. I am grateful too for her patience while I had them included in the photo shoot, delaying the posting a couple of weeks. Imagine my surprise to find out I was sending the paintings to an address in the very street I lived in last year and yet had not met this lovely person. We lived only doors away from one another!

I am so pleased we have now 'met' and look forward to our new friendship growing and I'm thrilled this work is now living in a home where she will be cherished!

Photographing the paintings professionally!

I had the best time with photographer Terry Schmidbauer today when he came to shoot 30 of my most recent paintings to include on the website.

It makes such a difference to have the correct lighting, color balance, white balance and a studio setting to shoot the work. I know many artists shot their own, and lord knows I have tried but no mater what time of day and where the sun is placed in the sky, there is always a reflection somewhere due to the high level of glazing in my work.

The studio environment and Terry's professional eye means I now have images of the work which manage to capture the depth in the many layers of color. Most paintings have between 15-20 layers, some more.

I will be loading these images on the website very soon but meanwhile I thought I would share the candid shot Terry mailed me of when he asked me to hold the color balance card for him. I had a great morning Terry.

Thanks for fitting us into your busy schedule and for the great photographs you took!

Fog

Sometimes you see clearer through a fog.You know the way 'black and white' can narrow things down, simplifying the hues in between and creating a clean cut shape of things. You might miss a few details but sometimes they are mere distraction. A gem shines brightly, you'll know it. I have been feeling my way through a fog of late. Literally and not so literally. Physically (Winter in a Valley) and emotionally (just putting down some roots) as always, the footprint of 'life' has been showing up in my paintings.

The Fog

My palette is quieter than late 2014's high energy, bold works (a time of great momentum and energy in daily life during this period) and the techniques have been based around a palette knife and not a brush. (Much easier for cleaning...bonus!)

Palette Knife

I have felt lighter in spirit, so whites were added. Zinc and Titanium, at different times, creating different layers of warmth and cold. I was feeling a little of that energy wise too. I was on or I was off. High energy or incubation. Those months were full of change, punctuated with adaption and chance. It fueled my creativity. I took risks with my overpainting in these works. For many layers some of the 'bits' didn't seem right but I didn't paint over them and now, some many layers more, it all reads together, as though that was always there just waiting to be discovered.

Detail of texture and overpainting.

A sculptural quality in my hands. Guided to remove or add in trust of what is building on the canvas. Feeling your way, noticing what beckons you to mark or stain or wipe away in some fashion. I'm always learning something. I've been 'feeling my way' through the Valley too. It gets mighty thick some mornings. Romantic but also in a way, 'eery', it's denser than I would have thought and the world around here is kinda damp right now. Which is good and nature is green as a result but it does change what you can actually see! It is also quite instinctive to hibernate.

A sweet young critic of mine recently commented this series represented the fog. I have to admit, it does and in so many ways. I painted them from the onset, with a 'do what you want to do for yourself' feeling and I did what I wanted to do, just because I wanted to do it just to please myself, no other agenda or theme for a show. It worked, they do please me. The more I digested of the world around me, the more I shared those feelings with the canvas in front of me. I think they read beautifully together. The colors reflect a lighter heart.

'Beauty in the fog' 24" x 36" Oil and pastel on canvas

'The fog is lifting' 24" x 36" Oil and pastel on canvas

The calligraphic movement is coming back in my wrist, making marks  of dance along the way, some staying visible, others  highlighted with further applications of white paint with a palette knife. Revealing and concealing over time. I worked through my emotions and saw  reflected exactly where I needed to stretch and grow. It's not always comfortable and it's not always pretty, but it sure is always worth it. The paintings are like my diary. I see them chronologically capturing the emotion of the period of time in which they were created. The series, 'Fog' was a time of sitting still and reflecting, being open and resisting judgement where possible and lots of letting go. I didn't always succeed but I feel I gave it a good shot. There is still at least one more canvas yet to be completed in the series Fog. There may be more.

'Fall Forward'

'Fall Forward' Show @ Jennifer Perlmutter Gallery Lafayette. CA

The show was about taking leaps, trusting process and moving forward. I feel it met that on so many levels; from Jennifer's curation of 6 Bay Area artists working in different mediums, to the idea that each of the artists is also taking leaps, trusting process and moving forward in their art.

http://jenniferperlmuttergallery.com/2014/10/fall-forward-taking-leaps-trusting-process-moving-forward/

I think the show was perfectly titled  'Fall Forward'. It takes courage to share your work. Sharing helps an artist identify themselves with their work on a level that can be taken for granted everyday in the studio, usually alone. It's a moment to stop and assess, enquire and address what one is doing and why.

Real engagement with artwork requires courage, looking with an open mind and a receptivity to how it makes you feel. Art is a language not spoken with words. It is color and lyrical brush strokes that speak in painting. Vibration that moves you, opens you to feeling something. It is a beautiful moment when viewer and painting find themselves a match.

It's been wonderful to be included. I've met some  awesomely  talented people and couldn't have asked for a better welcome to the neighborhood! We toasted the night with 'New Age' -effervescent wine with lime over ice! Delicious!

Here are some pics from the opening reception:

@'Fall Forward'

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'New Age' Sparkling Wine -over Lime and Ice.

'Fall Forward' Group Show

I am pleased to announce I have been invited to participate in the 'Fall Forward' group show @ the Jennifer Perlmutter Gallery here in the East Bay. The show opens on Thursday the 6th of November 2014 Jennifer Perlmutter Gallery 6.30-8.30pm- reception 3620 Mt Diablo Blvd, Lafayette CA (925) 284 1485

http://www.jenniferperlmuttergallery.com

The Exhibit features 6 East Bay artists presenting a variety of medium. Artists: Jeffrey Sully- Sculpture Lisa Carroll- Paper Allen Wittert- Acrylic Jon Larsen- Pastel Jennifer Perlmutter- Mixed Media and myself, Deborah Rhee- Oil

It's interesting to note the draw different mediums have on artists. How is it we are drawn to a particular form of expression? How do our materials convey a deeper understanding of our own personalities and points of view?

I have always worked in Oil- Oil and layers of Glaze. There is something that brings to mind the history of painting when using these materials that makes me feel part of something larger than myself. I love their buttery texture, the fact their longer drying time affords me the luxury of returning to rework an area over many times, adding and subtracting until I am happy with the result. I delight in playing with the consistency by adding glazing mediums of various viscosity and watching in turn how that affects the outcome of the application, in itself and how it affects already existing layers of color. Building layers of transparency and opacity, creating world to explore in what I see presenting on the canvas. I consider my work a true collaboration with my materials. The techniques I use bring a certain element of surprise as I work, with gravity playing an important part in the finished product. Where and how my drips run or collide and where washes pool and rivulet, all adding to the scape building before my eyes. Honestly, I get lost looking at the smaller detail of these actions. It's mesmerizing to me, like cloud gazing. I lose myself. Time disappears. A blue wash will run over a section of yellow already applied and a small hint of green will appear. There is an innocence in my participation. Guided by intuition and discovery rather than following a preconceived plan of something I am trying to create. I let the materials show me what we are creating together.

This show of mixed mediums has made me consider more deeply my choice of material. What exactly my choice of material says about me is not yet clear but I am happy to be entertaining the question.

I look forward to learning more about the other 5 artists contributing to 'Fall Forward' and the story behind their choice of expression. Hope to see you at the show!