Having time off work between Christmas and New Year is an incredible blessing to me. To be able to regain the natural response in my painting, I need to have several days to adjust and calm my inter vibrations. My academic work, although fulfilling, does not draw from the same source as my artwork does. As a result, I have to make a concerted effort to relax and paint.
I have been napping, cleaning, eating fun meals, watching TV programs, and enjoying time with my sweetheart. I have also been tinkering, dithering on older pieces, and painting new works.
If you saw the last post of the painting of trees you saw a lovely way to work through rustiness on a new canvas. Today, I have been thinking about friends and family and I tend to paint while I do that. Sometimes I paint from my head, and sometimes I look in a folder I keep on my phone of source images that I have either taken, or seen on friends’ social media sites. This is where the permissions that you, my friends, have given me become so vital to me. When I go to that folder and an image speaks to me, it allows me the freedom to run with it at that moment of inspiration.
Today I have been thinking about friendships and wanted to lift up one family in northern Wisconsin who have been gracious, accepting, and supportive of me and my work. Thank you for the permission to enjoy creating today’s painting, a 5″ x 7″ oil on canvas board – a playful study called “Maggie”.
I am embarrased to realize how much time has passed since I last wrote here, and even more so to realize how little I have painted in the last 3 months. I get busy with the obligations of employment and time races on with a creschendoing inertia that takes intentional steps for intervention to slow it down.
True, I was here for announcements for the website and to mark calendar commitments through the fall but I didn’t work at nurturing my art’s very source. I forgot to nurture my spirit.
Now Christmas holidays are upon me and I’m amazed at how many days it has taken me to to slow the vibrations inside. Yesterday, I finally sat down in my studio, took a deep breath, and began to paint. I honestly don’t know how I allowed so much time to pass away from the easel. I know that when I don’t paint I become imbalanced. Then when I do sit down it takes discipline to force through those stiffened creative muscles just as someone who’s been away from the gym experiences. I had to tinker and to think creatively; I had to find that rhythm again; and I had to reimage a picture in my mind that needed painting.
This week will be about me reestablishing the correct flow, reestablishing the priorities that my soul needs, disallowing outside stress to drive my processes, and regaining my art disciplines that have been pushed into their shoeboxes and up on the shelf. I can run for a while without art being at the forefront, but inertia cannot sustain me and without my art all of the rest of it unravels.
So my New Year’s resolution will be to systematically reestablish my priorities for a happier and healthier physical, emotional, and mental well being.
As for today, the step that I must take to begin that process is to paint. I hope you enjoy this painting of a tree that I did yesterday. It is a tree like any tree in any forest, but it is the beginning of my reset.
I offer you this 11″ x 14″ oil on canvas board of ..trees.
I could tell that September was trying to set a new pace for fall but in my naivete I somehow thought it would settle into one that was a bit more realistic. Not so.
October found me trying to triage tasks and events with hopes of getting everything done before weather changed. My task lists were comprised of preparing the house and yard for fall, getting a lot of art ready for a show in early December and holiday shoppers. I was limited to the hours I am not already committed to my day job and I tend to forget – that is not many hours and it’s dark by the time I get off. Eventually I found myself literally picking what was going to just remain undone and rationalizing to be ok with that.
Now it’s November. The freezing temps choose the close of yardwork. Some storms are up on windows, but not all. There aren’t enough daylight hours in my day but I am happy to say that each evening I am signing and packaging art prints. Yesterday I launched a limited edition of the landscape, Appalachian Vista in the Sales Gallery. In forthcoming Saturdays I will reveal open edition prints of an exciting new collection of images, a selection of holiday cards, and a pre holiday sale.
I am beginning to get some semblance of order and pace established and look forward to spending more time with you here.
The last couple of months have gone by so incredibly fast.
In mid August my website hit a couple of snags and this catalyst began a journey of introspection and change that I couldn’t have forecast, and don’t regret. What a domino effect it began.
I went to Willow Folk Festival and began a sequence of life-motions that built inertia, pushing now well into October. I saw a month ahead of me at that point that was solidly booked for every weekend with living history events, an art show, a website revamp, and several other obligations. Clearly, I over committed.
The first living history event was scheduled right after Labor Day. It was canceled due to covid concerns and for me, it was a blessing. It gave me a free weekend. Preparation for the next event, an art show, can take weeks – especially when you’re working full time and the time you can spend on it is nights and weekends. I leaned into final framing preparation for the art show.
By mid September I was setting up for the Greenwich Village art fair. It was a wonderful event and a first time for me doing an outdoor art fair like this in the town where I live. The audience, too, was a huge change since it was to the general public as opposed to the living history community that knew me. I saw such a variety of people from my various careers here in Rockford and felt like it was the perfect intersection.
So many people didn’t know I was an artist, or only remembered me in the graphic arts industry. Then there were those who only know me as a librarian. Amazing – and I even won an honorable mention ribbon and award for my body of work.
I didn’t get to rest on my laurels for long because within 4 days I was heading to Minnesota with my husband for a living history event he was contracted for. I had a great deal of fun there too but the speed and strain on this introvert for an extended period was difficult.
The evolution is now fully in motion. The new sales gallery is running online, things are unpacked and stowed, and I’m back into routines. The bottom line, however, is I hadn’t painted since the 2nd week in August when I was at the folk festival.
I’ve had people contact me for commissions that I haven’t been able to start and I have needed to let my emotional processing catch up with my schedule. Now my day work is settling back into a good pattern and knew I needed to sit down at the board again.
It feels good to once again be started down the path to a new adventure. Or perhaps not a new adventure, but a revitalization of my prescribed life path. I can’t predict where I’m going to go, or how I will evolve, but I am truly excited now at the prospect of the motion and what new discoveries they will afford.
While at Willow I enjoyed watching a man create huge soap bubbles that floated slowly over the camps of the musicians. True to my lifetime love of bubbles, I was both enamored and renewed at the magic of them. Today’s painting, close to being done perhaps, is a 20″ x 20″ oil on canvas of a “Bubble Rising”.
Join me if you will. I’m sure we will have great fun together.
Change is inevitable. Good or bad, it will occur. We rarely have the ability to deter the change but we may have the power to lessen the negative impact to some degree by our reaction to it. How it affects us longterm is most assuredly affected by choices we make.
We can either be agile enough to move with it like the colored leaf on the surface of a tumbling creek, or we can choose to be the rock and spend our energy holding fast against the water in a Scissorphean stance and let the water ravage us until we break or wear down. To stubbornly resist change is exhausting and relatively pointless.
I propose to you – decide which you will be before change is upon you. What if you choose to be the leaf? Choose to be agile and take the proactive, optimistic perspective before you land on the surface of the water? As that leaf, what if you choose instead to enjoy the breeze blowing you through the air? What if you choose to enjoy the perspective of the sun on your surroundings in an ever changing view as you fall? What if you enjoy the delightful change in temperature as you approach the water? What if you celebrate the fun and rapid movement once you’ve landed and you swirl away down the creek to new adventures and new beginnings?
The paintings that I’ve been doing lately have been reflections of my inner thought process – sitting and thinking about my next steps and my reactions to change. I have also been thinking of people that I know who live in a spirit of positive reaction. Living with an optimistic perspective has an absolutely evidentiary impact on our life; our reaction to change, our stress levels, our potential for happiness in the face of challenge, and our ability to spin our futures in a positive direction.
I am blessed to know many positive souls and am grateful for it.
The painting above is of a young woman that I admire. I have watched her grow into a most lovely woman, both inside and out, and her beauty comes from the joy that emanates from her face and is reflected in her smile. It is one of my strongest opinions that people are the most beautiful and/or handsome when they smile. That joy is a powerful force that affects both herself, and those around her. It can become a driving force that is cyclical and self escalating.
No, I don’t think she actually owns chickens but chickens somehow make me happy and make me feel a connection to simpler times. Thanks to my model, Hannah, for your infectious joy.
This painting is a 16″ x 20″ oil on canvas called, “Hannah’s Heart”.
That’s a question that I would never again answer flippantly. If I have learned nothing else from the past year and a half it would be that no one can predict what will happen next, and speaking thoughtfully and truthfully has value beyond measure. It has been incredibly hard, even debilitating and life changing for so very many people. It is not easy to find anything good to say about the affect of a worldwide health crises, but despite all of the negative aspects, I must say that I am now being able to identify some positive effects it has had on me.
Knowing that I had to think about all of my actions, all of my words, and all of my intents, made me a more careful and thoughtful person. I may not have taken the time or I may have procrastinated making the changes that I was forced to make. Yes, we had to wear masks to keep from infecting each other with this evil virus. Yes, the restrictions affected our ability to move freely in society as we worked collectively and selflessly to control the spread. It also slowed me down and made me take the time to evaluate myself, my aspirations, my selfishness, and the impact that I have on everyone around me through my opinions and my actions. I also became more aware of these impacts from others.
This time has helped me take my relationship with my sweetheart to a deeper level, and I am heartwarmed and grateful. We have played together and talked together and dreamed together like new lovers. The painting above is just one of dozens I have captured of places from our driving adventures.
My art has also become more important for me. I am painting more, maturing and evolving faster, and becoming better in a way I might not have been able to do if I hadn’t been slowed down drastically. I am painting broad subject matter, and experimenting with color, style, and method. I am always learning and growing now and increasingly optimistic that I will eventually be recognized. The painting below is an oil study I’ll call, “Breakfast”.
Later in the year I will be taking my art history knowledge to a public event (Platteville, Wisconsin) setting up original work at an outdoor art fair (Greenwich Villiage Art Fair in Rockford, Illinois), and showing at an Outlander Convention (Thru the Stones in Davenport, Iowa).
Are you OK? Yes, I believe I am. Am I different? Yes, I believe I am that as well and I am grateful for the good changes I am now undergoing. It’s been a tough year but it’s time to breathe, celebrate life’s riches, and move forward. I am OK and I believe I will just keep getting better.
It’s that time of year, after being inside for the Winter, we can start getting outdoors and taking vacations and exploring again. Covid restrictions are letting up as people are getting vaccinated and being out and about in parks and it feels pretty normal. As for my husband and I, the semester has come to a close so we can find time for long camping and fishing weekends.
As we prepare for camping, in addition to the normal things that you would stow in the vehicle like lodging, bedding and food, we reach for the book to read, the walking sticks, and quiet entertainments. My husband will bring something to whittle, and I will bring my plein-air painting kit. Even in a camp spot with no exotic vistas or intriguing architecture, there are always ready subjects.
It rained off and on while we were camping but the one day was relatively clear and I sat just within the circle of our campsite and pointed in a couple different directions to paint. When I’m working like this these oil sketches are captures for pure fun. They also continue to hone both my powers of observation, quick problem solving and other skillsets.
For me, paintings like this are not large and not intended to be more than moments captured live with the simplest layer between the artist and the living view. I may select subject matter that’s as small as one of the many warblers flitting around the site, or the wild geraniums at the edge of the clearing, or anything else from small to large within my vision because it’s more about the capture and the practice.
These pictures show the two paintings, 5″ by 7″, oil on canvas board that I painted that day. The one I call, ‘Honeysuckle Blooms’ and the other one, ‘Our Path To The Lake’.
I can get wound up on Fridays because I know it’s the weekend and I can play in my yard and I can play at my easel and do various other fun things. I get excited. Yesterday, I also had a pretty unusual Friday at work with projects, visitors, conversations and work challenges that left me in hyper think. I bring this up because when my mind is that stimulated I can guarantee I’ll awaken in the middle of the night with insomnia. When I do, sometimes I’ll paint to wind back down.
As an artist I may talk about painting short studies in the field or doing sketches live or looking at a photo but I don’t often admit how much I reference memory. I do, of course, even if it’s subliminally referencing known anatomy long after I’ve taken the photo or seen the animal or recall land similar to what I’m painting. I am actually mushing together what I have seen and what I know from memory.
So, at about 2:30 this morning I woke up thinking about a crow that I saw as I pulled into my parking space at work yesterday morning. He burst up out of the long weeds at the edge of the parking lot with a mouthful of nesting material, side-lit in morning sun and a blur of motion. I spent a bit more than an hour at the easel during the night trying to jot down what my dream image was and referencing my memory of that fleeting mental snapshot.
It all sounds more complex than it is, but sometimes studies are just about experimenting with pushing paint around and I happened to pick that crow, at that moment, as he fades into my memory.
I hope you enjoy an insight to my dream bridge as I share this 11″ x 14″ oil on canvas called “Collecting”.
Mankind, by our very nature, has a tendency for various rituals and belief systems based on honoring those who have gone before. Over millennia, these have been based on our theology or cultural norms and personally, having been raised in a Christian based belief system that designates heaven as the hoped-for goal, I grew up with a pretty clear image of that place.
I suspect that every one of us has some variation on that eventual place of perfection in our minds that is rooted in our spiritual readings or stories and motivates us to stay the course and win the prize. I know I do. As a woman of faith, heaven is absolutely in my plan.
Now, the variations of what heaven is, exactly, or how one gains entry, and a number of other proprietary criteria tend to be the literal root of dissension among all of the various faith systems. Sadly, it becomes competitively discriminating and fearfully defended without regard, by self-appointed human bouncers.
I believe I will see my parents again, and dear relatives, and even people I have admired for their intellect or spirit or love. I rarely admire anyone for their status or material accumulation and have long since leaned into the ‘actions speak louder than words’ rubric with a sans-theatrical filter. Cons just don’t impress me, and rarely fool me anymore if I’m paying attention.
My thoughts today, however, are focused more on one small thread of who may or may not be deemed worthy of entry through the gates of heaven. I believe, and I do qualify this as my belief, that heaven is also populated by all of the other sweet creatures that God lovingly created here on Earth. Yes, I believe that all of these animals, birds, and delightful creatures are also living happily in heaven.
I believe that heaven is governed by God’s law, and is complete with His peace without regard to any of the human interpreted qualifiers. We suspect this in our hearts as we share stories of beloved pets walking the rainbow bridge ahead of us, of them running to greet us when we arrive, and of the peace between all of God’s creatures in the nirvana that it’s heaven.
I recently had a conversation with a friend who spoke about the eventual loss of his horses, who are quite aged. I understand. It made me think about some of the wonderful, loving cats I’ve had and how sincerely grief stricken I have felt when I lost them. My common voice assured me they were just pets but my spiritual voice said far more. People who have seen that unconditional love coming from the eyes of an animal can easily relate to the unconditional love our Father has for us. God doesn’t work through coincidences but instead, gives us tangible lessons, demonstrations to help us understand concepts at the edge of our comprehension. This world He created for us is for more than food and shelter, it is here for us to learn and prepare for heaven…. and believe me, He really is watching, and impossible to con.
Today’s painting is a 5″ x 7″ oil on canvas board called, ‘Warm welcome’.
Kelly E. James 