Natural Translations

My annual Tremblant exhibition is now up and running at Les Mots Tremblant 

This charming and cozy venue is the perfect place
to host my paintings over the holidays. Visitors can have a glass of wine, a bowl of soup or a hot drink while relaxing and taking in the paintings. This is my absolute favorite way for people to view the artworks that have taken days, weeks and in some cases, months to produce.

Mont-Tremblant will always be close to my heart and I love to return to old friends and new with this annual exhibition.

A Summer Collage

Collage 

is a word that comes to me often lately. I move through time and space seeking images for my work, even following them as they lead me from one adventure to another. 

Every single place, person and moment is offered up as material for translation into paint.

Life and Art fuse.

 

Watching the Patterns of the Land

I have been reading The Snowy Tower by Martin Shaw and am enthralled with his insights into how stories and images come to us from watching the patterns of the land:

"A slow emergence from the tree line - a mist of story. Not in the clipped tempo of the written sentence, but in a galloping, roaming, rampant language that tears into the soul like the vivid colors of a jungle bird...We no longer rove, ablaze and alive in the greenness of things...we're getting big on statistics, big on knowledge, but if ever we needed wisdom, now is the time."

Breaking Through / 30" x 40" 

Strength in Vulnerability

"Dance when you're broken open. Dance, if you've torn the bandage off. Dance in the middle of the fighting. Dance in your blood. Dance when you're perfectly free."  ~Rumi

The other day I drew the Hanged Man card from the Tarot deck and it felt appropriate. Twenty months ago Loss was the price I had to pay for a great Love in my life and Walt was worth every tear. 

Recently my heart started to beat with love and life again. I could feel the blood start to flow anew as I recognized the first feelings of longing again. I didn't think it was possible. Slowly, tentatively I felt eros stirring inside, I couldn't believe it...and then just as I started to move towards the beckoning my heart was promptly shattered. 

Grief flows in mysterious patterns.

We Appear in this World for a Brief Moment / 40" x 60"

The Hanged Man represents an inward seeking.

The true quest is seeking within, not without. The fresh wound of loss was ripped open,

Breathing the Forest

Breathing the Forest is up and ready to go! 

Opening Night is Friday, June 23, 2017 from 5 to 7pm

Exhibition continues until July 30, 2017

Lake Placid Centre for the Arts, 17 Algonquin Road, Lake Placid, NY

Breathing the Forest book available HERE

The Living Energy Behind the Form

When I paint I seem to enter an eternal present, a place where time and space drop away and I am fully alive and participating in the moment. It's as if I can feel all the molecules around me and in me vibrating together.  If I stop to notice this I break the spell, it's like trying to grasp onto a memory or a dream fragment that is just at the edge of your consciousness. The minute you look at it directly it dissipates. 

And so it is that I must enter the studio and leave my "thinking brain" behind...this is hard cause I like thinking, I am very attached to thinking. I am a curious cat and attracted to ideas and thoughts like a moth to a candle. However the practice of painting teaches me more about what I need to know in the present moment. My conscious mind may think I need to learn about a certain idea or concept but my painting brain absorbs and filters those ideas into non verbal expressions of a stronger, deeper vein. It is my unconscious mind that mines the depths for hidden jewels or as yet undiscovered truths. As I descend into this unknown place I experience a plethora of unexpected emotions; grief, sadness, anger, angst, loss and I allow myself to feel them all, fully. Staying with these feelings is often difficult and 
scary but always worthwhile as they weave their way into the paint and transmute themselves into universal stories of colour and texture.

I have been reading a remarkable book, The Scatterlings by Dr. Martin Shaw, a gifted writer, storyteller and teacher of the living myth. He speaks of the creative process like this:

"In the doing of the thing--the dance, the translation (the painting)--something unexpected happens that takes you far nearer to the spirit of the art than you could ever access in the cautious transcript. You may--just may--taste the awen, the living energy that stands behind the form."

"Wildness is a form of sophistication, because it carries within it true knowledge of our place in the world. It doesn’t exclude civilization but prowls through it, knowing when to attend to the needs of the committee and when to drink from the moonlit lake. It will wear a suit when it has to, but refuses to clip its talons or whiskers. Its sensing-nature is not afraid of emotion: the old stories are full of grief forests and triumphant returns, banquets and bridges of thorns. Myth tells us that the full gamut of feeling is to be experienced. Wildness is the capacity to go into joy, sorrow, and anger fully and stay there for as long as needed, regardless of what anyone else thinks. Sometimes, as Lorca says, it means “get down on all fours for twenty centuries and eat the grasses of the cemeteries. ” Wildness carries sobriety as well as exuberance, and has allowed loss to mark its face."

~Dr. Martin Shaw

Spirit in Nature

spirit (n.) directly from Latin spiritus "a breathing (respiration, and of the wind), breath; breath of a god," hence "inspiration; breath of life," hence "life;" also "disposition, character; high spirit, vigor, courage; pride, arrogance," related to spirare "to breathe."

The word "spirit" has come into my life lately. This happens with words sometimes; they just turn up and keep repeating themselves everywhere. So when I noticed a small sign along the road that said "Spirit in Nature" I made a U-Turn and decided to follow the signs to wherever they might lead me. 

The Triumvirate of Queens

This is the story of how the Three Queens came to be. The thing about painting is that it takes me on fantastical journeys both within and without. I have learned over time that the process seems to understand me better than I understand myself. I learn what I need to know by painting.  I have also learned to trust this process completely, it's a bit like getting in a boat and letting yourself drift with the river flow, being mindful that you don't get caught up in the rapids but also not controlling the boat more then is necessary to not tip over or crash along the way.

Back to the Queens. It all begins when I suddenly see an image amongst the thousands of photos in my studio. This time it was an ancient old oak tree and it suddenly jumped out of the pile of photos, luminous and wanting to be painted. I begin by deciding what size, this tree was insisting on being at least as tall as me so I chose a 60" high canvas. The larger the canvas the more gesture and movement that goes into the painting.

People are always asking me how long it takes to do a painting.

The Artist Project 2017

 This year's Artist Project in Toronto was an exceptional event for me. Many sales and new connections. I am so grateful for all the positive feedback on my new work and I look forward to getting back into the studio for my next solo show at Lake Placid Centre for the Arts opening June 23!

A few shots of the final booth set up on Opening Night which was very well attended as you can see! 

Toronto Artist Project 2017

The last few months has seen a steady rhythmic production of new paintings. The wintery months in Montreal usually turn me into an introvert who hunkers down in the studio all day, returning home in the early evening to eat a meal and read until bedtime. The days are short, the light is limited and the temperature is cold outside. 

This year there has been the added preoccupation of a frightening political situation south of the border. There seems to be a constant barrage of information and events that is simultaneously promoting fear and hatred as it also awakens people to rise up in a shared love of humanity and our planet. It feels both inspiring and frightening to watch this tension of opposites become more and more polarized. I understand the world through intuition and feeling. It is my intuition that if we are able to hold the tension between the opposites long enough perhaps a third way will be born or made known to us. I feel the familiar crumbling away and the earth shifting, it feels dangerous and uncertain. All I can do is trust the process that is unfolding, speak up when my heart tells me to and PAINT. I paint to learn what it is I need to know. My paintings are always ahead of my own understanding of life and so I follow their lead and let them guide me.

All of this is showing up in my work as a fervent inner burning that transmutes into brighter and bolder colours!  This video is a brief glimpse into some of the newest work:

Next Tuesday I will load the car with all the new work and head for Toronto to exhibit at The Artist Project , a large contemporary Art Fair of 250 artists. Please help me to spread the word and come by yourself if you are in the area! Always a fun event to attend and I'd love to see you! Stop by at booth 922 and say hi!