5 Day Art Challenge on Facebook

After a few false starts, I'm desperate to get back into a studio.  Now that I've sold an incredible amount of baby gear over the past weekend, there's officially room for at least one easel to stand.

And I'm determined to make this start stick.

I'm feeling the love and am incredibly grateful for the positive feedback and encouragement I've received regarding my work after I participated in the aforementioned art challenge.  Five days, three paintings (past or present) posted on Facebook.

And I will not stop.  I musn't stop.  I cannot stop:

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Hiatus

Well, it's been about 3 years since my last blog entry.  And more than 3 years since I have officially finished a painting.  I've been dying to get back into the studio. And I won't even begin to acknowledge the guilt I feel that I've neglected my career, my passion during this time.


It has been an incredibly challenging, yet wonderful 3 years.  Before my son turned one year old, we learned that we were expecting again.  And my husband and I welcomed another little girl into our lives in October 2012.  But just a week before I gave birth, I fractured my right shoulder!

This is what's really been keeping me busy the last few years. 
Photo by Karolina Bak Photography 2014

So, not only was my family dealing with the realities of raising three children 5-years-old and under; but I was also undergoing intensive physiotherapy and hydrotherapy to get my shoulder sorted. 

Now, I don't think anyone is even reading this blog.  But I do want to send a very sincere thank you to those few who have remained supportive of my career and continue to ask if I have any new paintings.  And thank you to everyone who has been so kind to continue to still "like" me on Facebook.

Please do stay tuned.  The pieces of "my life" that have been temporarily overshadowed by my "mummy" life are slowly but surely returning.  I can't wait to get my ideas straight onto canvas and share them with you all.  In the meantime, please feel free to check out my still-not-updated website for examples of my work.  Or my other blog for behind-the-scenes peeks at past works-in-progress or other doodles and visual ramblings...

C xo

Hello again!

Right. So I did fall off the face of the planet for a year-and-a-half there. My husband, daughter and I joyfully welcomed a boy to our family this past April. It has been an amazing experience and an incredible adjustment. And I have continued to note my inspirations for future paintings. But time and space literally became issues since I last posted to this blog.

I had high hopes of having another one-woman exhibition before my son was born. But work quickly fell to the bottom of my priority list as both my time and energy were quickly spent elsewhere.

Now that he is almost 9 months old, I am fully committed to re-creating studio space lost by the addition of the nursery. And I will make time for work in my life.

I do have one new piece in progress, which will also be revisited once the holidays are over, and our visiting family has returned home. I am looking forward to sharing more work once it has progressed far enough along to be worth sharing.

If anyone does read this, I hope you've had an amazing 2011. And wish you all the best for 2012.

Closed

This is a painting that I began in 2007, but completed in May, 2008. It was exhibited in May '08, and again at Duality this past May, 2010.

Closed
Acrylic and mixed media
on canvas, 24"x32", 2008

I do apologize that I haven't any photos of the piece as it progressed; as doing so has been recent practice. But as in most of my work, you can see many interesting layers of texture and depth pushed into the background.

My source of inspiration was yet another quote by Joseph Campbell from "The Power of Myth", where he writes, "Find a place (inside) where there is joy, and the joy will burn out the pain."

During the time that I began this painting, I was 5 or 6 months into my pregnancy. And for a short period before, and up until then, I honestly felt that I couldn't paint. I was trying to alleviate my anxiety by attempting to read every book I could find about pregnancy, motherhood, child-rearing...thinking that if I learned as much as I could biologically and psychologically about my child, everything would be okay. I mean, if one could simply stay a few chapters ahead in learning about different developmental stages, it would okay, right?

Needless to say, those were but some of the ideas and emotions fuelling the creation of this succulent, abstracted blossom. It does not appear to be a typical flower that may eventually bloom and open up; but rather one whose very petals and leaves themselves are soon to actually burst.

Summertime

The thermometers in both our vehicle and our home have occassionally read over 50°C. Summer is well underway in the desert here, and my husband, daughter and I are counting down the days until we can surround ourselves with some greenery and be reunited with some of our extended family.

Shortly after the exhibition, I admittedly avoided the studio for a week and a bit. I have, however, since visited the local art stores and invested in about eleven new canvasses - which I am very excited to get to!

In the meantime, here is a photo of an unfinished piece in progress. Longlifestory most definitely to follow.

still under construction...
acrylic & mixed media on canvas

Wanted: Inspiration

I've got three paintings currently in progress.

I've purchased two beautifully empty canvasses.

I've finally emptied the container I had filled with paints, brushes, and other supplies; for use during my temporary studio time at Yama Yoga. So, my studio is almost back to a working state. (Rather than a temporary dumping ground for all the exhibition-related things that I was too exhausted to address and organize after the end of the show.)

My baby has fully recovered from everything that ailed her over the one week I had to work outside the home. I've gotten over the slight cough I picked up at the end of my art show. And I've gotten caught up on all the important TV shows that I secretly and not-so-secretly enjoy.

Temperatures are soaring here in Doha as summer approaches. And the level of humidity has made it feel even hotter than it really is.

What better time to seek refuge in the air-conditioned studio and begin seeking inspiration for a new series?

Last Day of Duality & Grass Series: No. 5b - Hope Returns

Grass Series - No. 5b: Hope Returns(triptych)

acrylic & mixed meda on canvas, each panel 30"x20", 2010

This painting was originally inspired by this quote from the Indian poet, Arundhati Roy:

"Not only is another world possible, she is on her way.
On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing."

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I very much enjoy working on triptych (3-part) paintings. I find it incredibly liberating to be able to not only rotate the canvas; but to also be able to swtich panels from left to right, top to bottom...and try to make it all fit together, while still making compositional sense at the end of the process.

This painting first debuted at the group exhibition in Education City in Doha, back in 2007; and was entitled, "Grass Series: No. 5 - Hope".

Although it may have seemed finished back then, there was something else that I wanted to do to the piece - but I just didn't know what it was yet.

So as I was completing Grass Series No. 6 (three years later), I put these back on the easels and got back to work.





Hope Returns - underlayer 1

Hope Returns - underlayer 2
I changed up the order of the panels...

Hope Returns - underlayer 3
...and started sketching in a blossom.

Hope Returns - underlayer 4

Hope Returns - underlayer 5
Then I wanted the flower to seem as if it's growing amongst wild grass.

Hope Returns - underlayer 6
So, I began to add more and more wild, free-form blades.

Hope Returns - underlayer 7
And then I felt that it was finally complete.

Grass Series - No. 5b: Hope Returns(triptych)

acrylic & mixed meda on canvas, each panel 30"x20", 2010