Real Love

I can't recall a time when I wasn't enthralled by horses, but I do remember the first time I watched National Velvet and fell in love with the Pie. I imagined myself as Velvet Brown. I rode each stride and wept when he fell sick. I was in love, not a fleeting crush, but a real love.

The horse that played the Pie was a descendent of Man O'War and by all accounts knew it. He was stunning, a bright chestnut with white stockings. He was a difficult horse, but he was good for Elizabeth Taylor and after the movie was finished the studio gifted him to her.

My heart still beats faster when I think of him, even though I know he was gone before I ever knew of him.

Small Packages

Listening to the Wind

Acrylic on Cradled Panel

8" x 10" x 1"

275.00

This painting reminds me of the moors in Wuthering Heights.

It is on a cradled wood panel and is ready to hang or frame.

Available in my Etsy Shop

 https://www.etsy.com/listing/467959130/listening-to-the-wind?ref=shop_home_active_1

An Artist Statement

Foundation Stock

Acrylic, Charcoal, and Graphite on Yupo

17.5" x 23"

875.00

I am constantly evaluating my art and studio practice. Trying new media and experimenting with different applications. Working to improve my skill set. Playing with different ideas and approaching the same problem, question from different angles.

As a result of this my artist statement changes. The changes are subtle as I move closer to my own truth.

This is the latest.

I paint horses.

I paint them because I love them, and this love has led me to spend thousands of hours with them, learning about them, and coming to an understanding of them.

There is a moment when I sense an ineffable something that dissolves all the boundaries of my prescribed being, and I am filled with a joy that verges on heartbreak— a feeling so overwhelming that it takes my breath and all my words away, and I am only left with marks and color.

It is in these moments that I feel the most authentic, and want to share what I have felt.This is what I paint. This is what I have to share.

Doubt

Untitled

Ghost Serigraph with

Watercolour, Ink, and Graphite on

Rives BFK

Image 10" x 14"

Framed 20" x 24"

750.00

There are lots of days when I am in the studio riddled with self doubt. Questioning what I am doing. Questioning why I am doing it. Questioning if it matters.

Then a painting sells.

There is a rush. A feeling of yes, someone recognized me. Me. Not my skill, not my ability, not my choice of materials, but me. The me that was and is always there. The me that I had no hand in creating. The me that has connected with something I don't understand. Something that is beyond the word of defining and lies in the field of feeling. Something only the heart glimpses and the artist wants to share.

And someone else felt it too!

Always More

Detail of Work in Progress

"The mind is arrested and raised above desire and loathing" James Joyce 

Aesthetic arrest.

This is what I am striving toward.

Texture

Leap of Faith

Acrylic, Graphite, and Charcoal 

on Yupo

17.20" x 23"

Sold

I have been working on Yupo for the past few weeks. It has a lovely smooth surface. The graphite and charcoal glide across the surface. It accepts the paint and also resists it. It is a fascinating and seductive material to work on.

Detail of Leap of Faith

Generally I do not incorporate a lot of texture in my work. I prefer implied texture, even when working on canvas. However, I find myself building and manipulating texture on the Yupo, both actual by building layers that have more body and implied by layering paint of different values and transparencies.

Detail of Leap of Faith

I have no idea where this is all leading me to, but I am enjoying the trek.

Mad about Yupo

Comin' In

17.5 x 23

Mixed Media on Yupo

Sold

I LOVE the surface of this paper. Yupo is a synthetic paper made by a company in Virginia. It has soft and velvety texture. It accepts the charcoal and will then release it, leaving only a ghost of the line. A line like the memory of a dream.

I have been using acrylic, and gesso, and charcoal, and water-soluble graphite on it. I have been working with a limited colour palette, and yet I feel there is so much to still explore with in these boundaries. It's intoxicating, I love being a painter.