Snow!

I painted this image a few weeks ago before the weather got cold and tried to imagine my Cardoon artichoke covered in snow. The arctic hare is sitting in the "forest" of giant plants looking very much alone.

I wanted to express a feeling I remember from being alone in the dark woods of New Brunswick in the middle of winter. The snow absorbed sound making the forest strangly quiet and soft and I have never felt so alone with my thoughts as in this kind of setting. The hare may be a picture of me alone in the woods, or an embodiment of my thoughts. Or, if I am feeling more whimsical, the hare is my own soul, staring back at me, which feels almost possible in the surreal atmosphere of silent snowy woods.

I called the painting "Miles to Go Before I Sleep" after a favourite Robert Frost poem. It is oil on canvas and measures 9"x12". You can click on it to see it larger.



STOPPING BY WOODS ON A SNOWY EVENING

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.


I took some photos in the garden on Sunday. Much of the snow had melted during the night leaving strangely eroded snowballs stuck to plants. It looked sort of like I had imagined in my painting. The weather is well below freezing and will stay this way for a few days, so I will enjoy how wonderful everything looks for a while longer.



A zinnia seed head looking like a hedgehog in a bubble bath.

Snowberries in the snow.

Opal plays in the snow and decides it tastes kind of funny.

Good Morning

I will hang this painting today at the old Macrina Bakery in Queen Anne as part of my show there. Some of the paintings from my last show will be moved over to the Queen Anne location.

I love how this painting turned out. It has captured the feeling that I get waking up on a summer morning with my ideas staring at me, waiting for me to look after them. Some of them are ideas for paintings, waiting to be created. Some are responsibilities that must be looked after. The painting is two feet wide and is oil on panel. You can see how it looked when I started painting it if you check my post on November 27.

Last Day of November

Yesterday's weather was strangely warm and foggy. I had a wonderful walk through the neigborhood looking at the dripping plants and the soft focus of fog. I never thought November could be so luscious.



Is this a persimmon tree in my neighbor's garden?


It has been years since I lived in chilly Canada but I am still amazed and delighted to have flowers in my garden in the winter.

My Morning Muses

Today I am giving thanks for having a full day by myself in the studio. I am working on a painting that has turned into a portrait of my thoughts when I wake up in the morning. It is the moment before I have fully opened my eyes but my mind is starting to work and I know that ideas have been waiting for me. Sometimes they are ideas for paintings. Sometimes they are responsibilities that need to be looked after in the day ahead. I get the feeling that they are all quietly demanding my attention, staring at me. Sort of like my little grey cat who sits patiently by my head for me to open my eyes in the morning.

I have painted my bedroom as though it is a Venetian palace because... well why not. I love Venice. I want to include some plants, as though there is a garden outside the window but haven't decided what sort of garden it will be. You can click on any of these images to see them bigger. The painting is two feet wide.

Careless Glee

I found this deer dancing on a ceramic container at the Seattle Art Museum and was struck by the strength of its shape and jauntiness of its pose. It looks like an embodiment of glee. There is also a suggestion that she is looking at the viewer to make sure that her dance is noticed - a very human trait. I gave her an orchard of fruit to dance in and she is carelessly knocking some berries to the ground. Is it ok to be so happy if we are careless with the people and environment surrounding us? I really don't know the answer.

You can see the inspiration for this painting at the SAM in the wonderful little Italian paneled room. I think it is an apothecary jar shaped like a segment of bamboo and comes from Asia somewhere. I will try to find out where.

Carmen Explores

This painting came so easily and quickly. Carmen, my stuffed armadillo, shares my desire to explore an exotic sunny word. She looks determined, if a little wary. Just like me when faced with new experiences. I gave her tropical plants that don't survive outside in a Seattle winter. This isn't a comfy image. But it is a happy and exciting one.
The plant is kalanchoe thyrsifolia or "paddle plant" which is native to South Africa.

A Very Good Day

My kids partying. 4 November 2008

What a very good day it is today. Though I live on a rather quiet street people burst out of their doors last night when the election was called for Obama, screaming, shouting, whooping and crying. One of the neighbors set off fireworks. The world needed a party. Congratulations everyone.

Getting Ready for the Show

I am still tinkering with this one. The tree is nice and misty but the rabbit's expressions need some reworking maybe. Anyway, I needed to move on and think about something else for a while so I started a fun little painting of my stuffed armadillo, Carmen. I found Carmen in Playa del Carmen, down in the Yucatan. I love her strong shape and unexpected color. As I am painting it I feel that I want her to be exploring a jungle of plants. Maybe I feel like exploring my own world a little these days. Our upcoming change of government has me in a mood to look around and look forward. Maybe we can poke our little noses out of our hiding places now and face the world again. Go Carmen go!

I will work hard on this little painting and hope to have it ready for the show, on 6 November.

Seize the Daylily

This is a painting I am working on called "Seize the Daylily".

I have been fortunate in my life so far to have had very little experience with death and the loss of people I am close to but this year I lost two family members. They were both in their eighties so their deaths were not out of the blue, but this didn't lesson the enormity of the loss. I was also struck by my inability to comprehend what had happened. Death is too huge to put into the context of my daily life. I can't get my mind around the fact that one day our lives are full of details -eating, sleeping, loving, laughing, worrying, weeding the garden, doing the dishes - and the next day we can be dead. It sounds puerile to point out that mortality is a profound concept but it is a concept that I have been thinking about lately. And so I decided to paint a memento mori.
Memento mori was a subject popular in the European art world a few hundred years ago in which the figure of a skull or a skeleton reminded us that our time on earth was briefer and less important than our time in heaven. When they took the form of a still life these paintings were called "vanitas".

I chose to paint a huge tree looming over creatures who are too small to understand the enormity of the object behind them. As I painted though I realized that the rabbit-like creatures were wise to ignore their own mortality. What else could they do but live their tiny brief lives to the fullest, reveling in the wonderful details of life rather than moping around focussed on death. I realized I was painting a "carpe diem", not a memento mori. Carpe diem is usually translated from Latin as "Seize the Day" which is all we can do when faced with the incomprehensible enormity mortality.

I want to make the tree more misty and mysterious. And I am still debating whether there should be the one rabbit creature having a serious thought or if I should cheer her up. There is also something wrong with her paws that I will fix.

I'm Back

I've been around but have been busy with a few things other than my garden and paintings lately. The mural needed some changes which became apparent once it was installed. So much silver and black on a large scale was looking a bit cold so I have been adding more branches of cheerful green leaves and happy pears. I go in after the cafe closes and stand up on the ladder in the big dark space, listening to music, reaching higher and higher with an extra long paint brush that I made, hoping that if I fall off the ladder some of the baking staff in the back rooms will find me.

During the day I have also been painting up on a ladder, and having lots of fun. My front porch is finally finished and now has red railings, gold columns, a robin's egg blue ceiling, and other rich shades of olive, brown and navy blue. OK I got carried away, but I figure my neighbors know that I am an eccentric painter already. There is no hiding it. I love color. (I kept the colors dark in general so as not to make my house look too much like a circus) I mix my own paints, buying them in quart sized cans and muddling them together with additions of acrylics until they are just right. Yes I am very particular about color.


And finally, I have been in the studio getting ready for a show of my oil paintings. The show will be at the new Macrina and I am excited to see my small pieces in such a big dramatic space. This is an important show for me since I have never before shown my oils of plants and animals, though I have been painting in this style for years now. I have been saving them for the right time to expose them to the public. I use the word "expose" since it feels a little like I am exposing my most personal thoughts and feelings. Most of the paintings are about how emotionally vulnerable we are in this beautiful and treacherous world. There are paintings of my son and paintings of small creatures. There are also paintings of weasels, who dance in defiance of uncertainty.

You are invited to join me at the opening of this show. If you see me there, and I have the same wary expression on my face as the bunny of honesty, it is because, like the honesty bunny, I am not hiding anything.

Installation

The mural was installed at Macrina's new headquarters yesterday! The building is huge and the front cafe has been beautifully designed to emphasize the historic warehouse architecture and materials. They will open for business tomorrow so today is my last chance to touch up the painting. There is a very tall ladder propped against the wall this morning waiting for me climb up and do the do my best Michelangelo impersonation. A little scary with everyone watching me...I like being in the building though, with the hustle and bustle of last minute activity. It has the feeling of a play about to open. The baristas are huddled by the espresso machine for intensive training. The electicians and carpenters rush around with hard hats and tool belts. The architect pops in and out looking worried. The owners linger in corners having important conversations. And all the while I can see the bakery staff through large glass windows making magical tempting smells with enormous mixing bowls of raisins, chocolate and spices. The production area of the building has already opened.

I got a call last night from the carpenter who is installing the mural telling me that one of the panels didn't fit and they were forced to take a slice off one side and glue it to the other side. This should give me pause...but he seems like a careful and skilled person so I am sure it is not as drastic as it sounds. I will just have to deal with it today. I have also asked him to put screws through the face of the mural to secure it to the wall really really well. We get earthquakes around here. He seemed reluctant to damage the painting but I know that I can camouflage the results. Looks like a busy day ahead of me.





I painted some chickadees in the branches of the tree in honor of the chickadee family that nested on my front porch this summer. There is a parent feeding a fledgling but everyone thinks they are kissing. Kind of nice, I guess.


Several people asked if I would include a weasel in the mural so I have signed my name in the lower right hand corner with one. This picture shows how the grain of the plywood tempers the shininess of the aluminum leaf. I was worried that the mural would glare as it reflects a lot of light but now I can see that it is ok.

Applying Leaf

I couldn't wait to get into the studio yesterday to start applying aluminum leaf to the mural. The leaf comes in 5.5 inch squares and is about as thin as one layer of a double layered kleenex. I had to close the studio door to stop the draft from blowing the leaf around the room.

I paint glue wherever I want the leaf to stick, which is tedious, but pleasantly doesn't require any brain power. Thank goodness for NPR keeping me company. Then the leaf is stuck all over the painting and rubbed with a cotton ball. Where there is glue it sticks and where there is paint it rubs away. Or that is how it is supposed to happen...

Oh no. Oh no. The plywood is rougher than I am used to working on and its tooth grabbed the leaf leaving it stuck to the paint in about a quater of the painted surface. There is nothing I can do but repaint on top of the unwanted aluminum. Very very time consuming. This may require more than the comfy voice of KUOW's Steve Scher to get me through. I might have to hit the books on tape... All this with a deadline of 15 September. It is going to be quite a week.

Still it will all be worth it in the end... Grrr.

Moving Outside

Henry and I took advantage of the sunshine today to move the painted panels outside into the alley allowing us to see them together. (One was left inside as it wasn't painted yet.) Once we had blocked the alley with the panels we ran up to the studio roof deck to look down on them. This meant that I could see if the angles and placement of the branches matched where they crossed from panel to panel.

I had never seen the panels all together before and it was a shock to see how big this thing is. I am trying not to be freaked out by it.

I took notes and photos and moved them all back inside again.