Be well….

Oil on Canvas

70 x 50

Last month my dreamlets brought flowers to their grandmother. She placed the flowers in a vase she made herself (she is a wonderful ceramist) and placed them on her kitchen window sill. I had bought l these lotus fruits figuring that if I didn’t like them I can always paint them… or both! Well, honestly, I didn’t like the taste, but I loved the colors… and I loved how they played off my mother’s vase and the chrysanthemums. It was a joy to paint.

Be well….

Acrylic on Canvas

Work In Progress

Another painting from the Angel series. I believe I will spark things up in this one with a top layer of oil paints. I love oils…. Acrylics are wonderful and are so “user friendly” but the colors, smells and overall feel of oils has stolen my heart…

Be well…

Oil on Canvas

I started a series of angel/sprit guide paintings for a small exhibition for an open house at a yoga studio in Thessaloniki this month. Unfortunately, strong southern winds kept me stuck on the island. No ferries ran for 2 days. It was difficult for me to let go of not being able to go. There is a saying here that says “every obstacle is for the best”. The only good I can see so far is that this gives me more time to let the paint dry and check for possible cracking. I’m using a new medium mix which I am not entirely sure of yet. Will have to wait and see.

Colors used are the 3 primary colors. Cad red and yellow, ultramarine blue and Titanium white. I wanted to stick with the ‘essence’ of color and not use too many mixes. I think it brings a certain vibrancy to the images and life to the painting.

Be well…..

70 x 50cm

Oil on Hardboard

I’ve had this one for a while but don’t recall uploading it. Children in their worlds…. I strive for their ability to be present. They just do it without having to think on it. Without having to learn meditation techniques, or fasting for days, or jumping out of planes.

If I could only remember…

Be well….

this is another test post… having trouble getting the images to upload. Still working on this one.

Oil on canvas paper

I feel good about this one. There is much to be improved upon but I did accomplish what I set out to do and that was a complete alla prima painting in one sitting. The work I have been doing these past few weeks on value have really paid off. I come to my painting now with altered eye and this is the reason I was able to do this little painting.

If anybody wants to learn anything I highly suggest that you periodically go back to the basics, especially if you think you already know them inside out. Thing is, every time you move forward your vision expands. Even though you know the basics already, you can’t help but see them from a new angle and so you understand them on a deeper level.

And feel free to use this metaphor in all areas of your life. Relationships, for instance…. how many of you go back to basics after years of being with someone? Certainly not me, but I’m willing to bet that if I did… or when I do I will see things again in a new, refreshing light…

Be well…..

In the meantime I continue to paint and study painting daily. At the moment I am stepping back and re-learning some basics such as the pivotal role of value/tone in painting plein air. Plein air is a challenge for me and the other day I went out into the sunshine to paint olive trees while my girls climbed on them. I think I painted the worse painting ever.

That is a good sign though. There was something I needed to adjust in my work and so I am going back to basics and painting grey-scale cubes and eggs under various light conditions. I am determined to “get it” with plein air landscapes (seascapes are so much easier for me). It’s the jumble of earthy tones (middle values) of the trees and wild brush and grasses filling in the spaces that I fail to interpret in a way that works in a painting.

On my easel I have a portrait of a monk (aside from the grey-scale eggs). I am searching for a different perspective… a new way of seeing the landscape… of seeing in general. In stepping back and building up my toolbox I am certain this new door will open…

Be well…..

Oil on hardboard

46 x 60 cm

Sea, sand and sky melt together in eternal, ever changing forms. It is said that the only certainty in life is change…. yet all change, in one way or another, is linked. We too, as boats of various shapes and color… some beached, others rocking with the movement of the sea… are affected by the waves and currents of the ocean, the winds and clouds of the sky and, on a subtler level, the delicate shifting of the sands. And through it all we are somehow, incredibly, all pieces fitting together in the holographic wholeness of life’s changes….

Be well……

Oil on Canvas

90 x 110 cm

I am still inspired by the red boat and at the moment I have 5 paintings, medium to large in size, on various easels in my studio drying and waiting for their next layer…

This one is nearly finished. I think the colors work well together and are well chosen for the mood I wanted to give… or rather the mood that took over me as I was painting this.

Be well…..