New Works on Paper (Mixed Media)

folded card, watercolor and ink

Watercolors, 5" x 8"

Watercolor, 5" x 8"

Watercolor, 5" x 8"

Watercolor Book p.2

watercolor, 8" x 5"

September Maple

watercolor, 8" x 5"

August Landscape

watercolor, 6" x 4"

Frost

6 1/2" x 7 1/2" watercolor

A fall frost is often accompanied by gardeners rushing around trying to protect their plants in various manners. Word spreads quickly, "There's going to be a frost tonight!" Some plants make it, some don't. It makes me think of The Resiliency Movement to which I just became aware through a fascinating WGBH program called This Emotional Life. Apparently most people are equipped with resiliency, which doesn't mean that one isn't shaken by difficult life events but that one is able to bounce back and be renewed. It is incredible to hear stories of people who rebuild their lives after natural disasters like Haiti and acts of war. President Obama in his first State of the Union address Wednesday night commented on the resiliency of Americans currently experiencing economic hardship.found an on-line course* about resiliency developed by Dr. Kristi Miller and Dorothy J. Landon .

"To further this understanding (or perhaps this confusion), Werner and Smith (1982) believe that resilience refers to a dynamic process residing in individuals as well as in the environment. From this perspective, resilience reflects human development as opposed to being a genetic trait that only a few "superkids" possess. In addition, Rutter (1984) states that "resilience cannot be seen as a fixed attribute of the individual…If circumstances change, resilience alters" (p. 57). Furthermore, Masten, Best, and Garmezy (1990) classify three types of resilience:

1. positive outcomes despite experiencing high-risk environments;
2. competent functioning in the face of acute or chronic major life stressors; and
3. recovery from a traumatic event."

We all run into major life stressors at some point in time, like plants. A list of stressors developed by psychiatrists Thomas Holmes and Richard Rahe in order of severity can be found on Wikipedia. Interesting that divorce, ranked number two is ahead of imprisonment, number four.

Art is meditative to me, a stress release. Frost is stable in its circular points of focus yet retains a sense of movement, growth, and atmosphere, reminders that change is a natural process.

*quoted with permission

Pink Roses from Amy

Pink Roses From Amy #1, 8 1/2"x6" watercolor 2010

Pink Roses From Amy#2, watercolor 9" x 6 1/2" 2010

I just arrived at my new house in Rhode Island. I am leaving the countryside of Western New York as my son wants a more walkable neighborhood and friends on his street rather than our somewhat isolated country road. We will also be closer to friends and family and fellow artists for me. We are leaving behind good friends, however, whom I wish could come with us. Last year my friend, Carin, who gave me the first bouquet of pink roses (they inspired the series of oil paintings) is one of them. My friend, Amy, is another. Amy brought be a dozen pink roses at our coffee "goodbye", knowing how much I liked the first roses. You know, being given a dozen roses by a friend rather than a boyfriend is different. If they had been red roses, given the cultural significance, it would have been a little strange. These flowers were both complete surprises and conveyed the warmth of the friendships. I am very fortunate to have such friends and I think the spirit of the paintings reflect this. The oil paintings as well as these watercolors are celebratory and intensely alive. I think we feel more alive when someone steps out of their box to express their love. I'm not an overly sentimental person but occasionally I'll get a bit teary when witnessing such moments in others. It is funny but when I heard of the passing of health care vote through the Senate I had such a feeling. It was particular to the way Senator Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia, a Democrat who typically wouldn't have voted for the bill, said "This is for my friend, Ted Kennedy --Aye!" It is an amazing thing when relationships can be so strong and close to one's heart.

I hope you have a Happy New Year filled with such warmth. Back to the boxes...

White Window

8" x 9"

watercolor

regarding art:

"...transmission of one soul's innermost essence to another. Art is meant to be an unconstrained expression of the inexpressible. It's our way of telling each other things we feel but are unable to put into words. It is ultimately the only real way of sharing who we really are with the rest of the world."

- Dilbert

created by Scott Adams

Yellow Arch

8"x 9"

watercolor

This painting is about bright fall days, crisp blue skies, and growing things. The dots are appropriate in the sense of jubilation they convey. The focal point is the white area under the center of the trees where the green converges and the blue slips down. Different elements come together harmoniously. It is not a painting about problems - world problems, personal problems, worries. It is a release from worries.

"WHAT I dream is an art of balance, of purity and serenity devoid of troubling or depressing subject matter, an art that might be for every mental worker like an appeasing influence; something like a good armchair . . ." - Henri Matisse

If anyone checks out my blog of archives, Before Art Weekly, they will see that aligning with Matisse's philosophy isn't always my goal. I've painted my night terrors. My more recent work, including this painting, is not about the upset. I think it is important to be restored. I'm not out to be your hot tub are equivalent, but to represent the beauty I experience in hope that you see it too. I'm imagining it but I'm not imagining it. Dreams are like that.

June Watercolors

watercolor on paper

5" x 4" and 4" x 5"

The summer is throwing a curve ball in my blogging so don't think that I don't know it's not June anymore. I like these three. The way an artist thinks about abstraction is evident from picture to picture. Reducing, "less is more", simplicity, it's all there but the basic impetus is to capture as much as possible in the fewest means possible. I guess I use the word "means" because its not as easy as it looks and the artist doesn't really know what to do and has to wing it. They are kind of haiku-ish. I start out with the feeling, "Okay, I want to show you everything" (although probably not as intensely as a photo-realist might). After that it is something like, "now that I've gotten all that off my chest, I can show you what else I see with my special x-ray reduction glasses". My son and I are currently listening to A Cricket in Times Square by George Sheldon, and it is like the symphony compared to a cricket and maybe the cricket is John Cage. He realized the importance of listening in relationship to sound and music. The process is like removing layers to reveal what is underneath. Seeing things anew, artists can take the smudges off your glasses (I won't try to take that analogy to sound and the ear).

I hope you enjoy my light, lyrical chirps.

Three Winter Watercolors

watercolors in Moleskin watercolor book

pages 16, 17, and 18

5" x 9"

I'll tell you what I enjoy about these (go ahead and call this a vanity blog, but are there any other kind? Besides, this is about artistic independence). I like the sense of scale in the first one with the little strip of land at the bottom. The bright blue rings out clearly, harmonizing with the other colors. The green edges suggest curtains or some kind of vegetation.

I am very interested in expansive space like where I live. The second picture has that openness, with the hint of a window frame or a camera viewfinder, distancing oneself from the cold and the elements. It is reflective of the no-stopping-it-now western quest to contain (and often possess) nature.

The daytime of deep winter has many variations of white and gray. Sometimes bright, sometimes dim, the snow often blindingly contrasts with the sky, forcing me to wear sunglasses while driving even though I'm craving the sun. White-out conditions blows the snow in every direction, blending the differences between up, down, and middle.

The third picture is about the sharp contrast of an overcast day without precipitation as viewed from an interior. The white and black are flat and bold while the gray has soft subtleties in color and paint handling, meeting with the snow in a line meant to convey the two substances.

My brother tells me it is eighty-one degrees in Ft. Lauderdale. He is keeping company with iguanas near the pool. It is enticing, but I would miss the grays. Alright, a few days might be nice...

Watercolors!

5" x 8"
Moleskin watercolor book

I am enjoying working in this Moleskin watercolor book. My son didn't go to camp very much this summer and we took a lot of vacations, so the ability to paint as increments of time open up to me is wonderful. The travel watercolor set and book stay close to me, even now that the trips are over. I need to think in color; a single pencil isn't enough for the kind of painting I am working on. Sometimes pencil makes it into the watercolors, though, like in the first three here. It is used to sharpen, delineate form, and add texture.
The first image is about a framed, fluid space. The second is like a landscape of choppy waters or those waters can be read as grass. The horizontal lines also read as two things: delineations of sky or some kind of telephone lines. The third picture is more about atmosphere/gauze and tangibility. The fourth is a singular, light tree in a landscape. The fifth is effervescent landscape dots. If the latter seems too abstract for you, think of sunspots and vision.
Meanwhile, I'm working on publicity for "Nicole Maynard: Images of Optimism" opening at the Bowery Gallery on October 28th. I just updated my website with revised resume, statement, and portfolio - check it out!