solitude

"Solitude -- being alone with thoughts and feelings -- contributes to productivity in creative work."

Richard Shiff in Van Gogh Up Close, Edited by Cornelia Homburg, Yale University Press

Solitude in the studio. I am in complete control of the sounds, the temperature, the light, the mood, the subject. I allow no interruptions and I feel my focus narrow to what is right in front of me. In this case, my beloved beach path, but this time with Looking Glass colors. More to come with this palette. I feel its zest on my tongue!

I am reading the book "Van Gogh Up Close" from the Van Gogh exhibit of the same name I saw at the Philadelphia Museum of Art earlier this year. You can learn more about that show and see some of the paintings in this Charlie Rose interview with the curators of the show here.

Some days solitude is one of those "Precious Things" Tori Amos sings about.

Van Gogh exhibit at Philadelphia Museum of Art

East Entrance, Philadelphia Museum of Art

Seeing art museums along the way has been one of the best parts of this trip. When I was at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, so was the amazing Van Gogh Up Close Exhibit! Many of the paintings were from PMA's own collection, but there were just as many from several other international museum collections.

I felt my eyes well with tears as I looked again and again at van Gogh's work. None of the dark "Potato Eaters," this exhibit was filled with light and light and angst and wonder, hope and despair. You can buy the book if you don't think you'll make it to Philly before the show ends May 6. Click here for information.

Portrait of Camille Roulin, 1889, Van Gogh, Philadelphia Museum of Art

I have discovered a wonderful website devoted to Van Gogh. Click here to see "The Vincent van Gogh Gallery."

Same shapes, different colors

24 x 24, pastel on sanded paper

These colors feel normal to me. Vibrant blues and violets and yellows. It's as if these colors are my best friends, or maybe they are my comfort colors (like comfort food with fewer calories!).

Reminds me of Van Gogh's "Portrait of a Peasant" painting I saw at the Norton Simon Museum recently.

How do you select your palette for a painting? By mood? By habit? By trial and error?

Daisy Love

 

14 x 11

oil and cold wax on Ray Mar panel

Whenever I am at a museum or art gallery, I enjoy looking at floral paintings. I look for composition, texture, and a sense of beauty and poetry in the fragile tissue of the petals. Fechin, Van Gogh, Renoir, they all do a great job with flowers, but it is Manet who steals the show every time.

Westmoreland Park plein air

Tree
18 x 24

under painting

It was a beautiful fall day today at Westmoreland Park in Southeast Portland. I painted en plein air with a friend and we were drawn to the trees along the waterway. The play of light and shadow and the expressive twists of the trunk and branches drew us to them like magnets to paper clips.

Not too hot. Not too cold. Not too windy. Not too many people. Beautiful light. A good friend. And a day to paint outdoors.

I think I was channeling van Gogh today. All of that rich color and texture seemed to call for that kind of response from me.

Life is good!

To van Gogh or not to van Gogh

When I was at the Getty in January, I stood in front of van Gogh's iris painting and stared. I could hardly breathe. I'm sure I drooled (just a little). I was mesmerized by its beauty. It was brilliant! Van Gogh's way of capturing the sensual forms and lines and colors really got to me. I was bowled over. That's probably why I was so enthralled with Schreiner's Iris Gardens. But, I never seemed to really paint with van Gogh's abandon. But, this weekend, I tried another iris painting in my studio. I hoped to channel van Gogh. This iris portrait is big, about 30" x 28". No van Gogh. Just a Katherine. Maybe next time.