Sultry Summer Day

Low languid overcast sky, humidity high enough to wring out with my hands, driveway so hot it blisters my bare feet, not a breath of air moving through the screen door.

Not a Breath of Air
4 x 5"; acrylic, ink, and pastels on manila stock
abstract
2017
[gift]

Soaking It All In

I have vivid memories of being with Grandma Chase when I was a child—the smell of the lotion she used on her skin; the feel of her kiss and the sound of her voice when I half woke to her late-night arrival at our home one time; her reassuring acceptance of my need to get out of bed two minutes after getting in, to go pee one more time; her sitting with me while I wrote a letter to a friend, helping me with spelling, and teaching me what a paragraph was and when to indent.

Now I am a grandma myself—Gma (/ˈjē•mä/), to be precise. On the first weekend of July I stored away a new little cluster of memories when I played in my studio with granddaughter Caroline—the smell of the shampoo she uses; the feel of her beside me and the sound of her voice as we chatted about this and that; her engagement in my painting process; her making decisions with me about color and composition, helping me cut and glue, and teaching me who she is and what she thinks about.

Birthday Pyrotechnics
3x4"; acrylic, pencil, water-soluble crayon, and ink
abstract
2017
[gift]

Flowers from My Cutting Garden

From the rich soil of a New Brunswick vacation I grew a lush garden crowded with blossoms. I've always liked the idea of a cutting garden, so I snipped flowers with wild abandon, plunking them into all manner of containers and setting them on tables, bringing their lively color and magnificence into my home.

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I've painted an abstract floral series—woo hoo!

I had no plan to do so when I began. You may recall that my starting point was to "make messy" and see where that took me. It took me first to a vase of flowers, and then I got the idea to create a series with the other three quadrants of my original "mess."

Sticking to my self-imposed commitment to a series was a challenge. Pushing myself to have a desired outcome, even though the particulars were up for grabs, proved to be difficult.

I felt a considerable amount of internal uproar as I worked on this series. I sense an overall unrest or turning point of some sort in my painting.

But, rather than let cerebral peregrinations catch me up in a swirl, for now I'm just going to wake up and smell the roses, so to speak.

Soaked My Head

You know how you get to the water's edge, and the water is freezing cold, and getting wet seems best done a tiny bit at a time? And then, the inch-by-inch approach turns out to be prolonged painful torture so you just dive in?

Finally soaked my head today.

The Designated Place for Questions
4.4 x 6"; acrylic, ink, collage, and oil pastel on paper
abstract floral
2017

Idling in Neutral

Again, just a few moments to splash around today.

Added color.

Huh.

Trying hard to idle in neutral rather than get all worked up one way or the other with each little change.

Clearly, as is the case in the Big Picture as well, I have no idea where I'm heading.

work in progress;
working title: Making Messy #4

Physicality

I love the physicality that comes into play when painting—the physical properties of opacity, transparency, viscosity, saturation, pliability, and so forth in paint, as well as the physicality of motion, resistance, flow, touch, smell, sight, and sound as my body engages in the process.

My new favorite material is food wrap.



I love lifting paint with it and using it as semitransparent collage. I got the idea to try printing typography on it.

Ha! My printer, governed by the laws of physics, said, Not happenin'.

Oh.

Happily, I was able to physically remove the resulting mess from my printer, handwrite my own gosh-darned 'typography,' and get on with things.

I collaged a piece of food wrap with its hand-lettered poetry to my painting, brayered on a layer of paint, and that was it for fireworks in my studio today.

Happy 4th of July!

work in progress;
working title: Making Messy #4

Playing in the Shallows

Meg, Michael, Caroline, and Emmy joined us two days ago for a five-day visit so I've been playing in the shallows. That is, I've taken only a few minutes at a go to paint.

I don't always have the courage to dive in head first anyway, so this go-one-step-deeper-at-a-time modus operandi is working for me.

The irony is that by playing in the shallows, increasing depth is emerging in my painting.

Love the way the black donuts, white polka dots, veiling, and drips push some elements forward and others way back, and a few even appear to cast shadows.

work in progress;
working title: Making Messy #4