Be Still

Psalm 46, 12 x 12", mixed media

My father died in a tractor accident over twenty years ago. It was March, in the middle of Lent. At his service, Psalm 46 was read. My mind had been in overdrive for days trying to comprehend what had happened and what the future would be like with this sudden loss; but it was dumbstruck at these words: "Be still, and know that I am God!" Just the words I needed to hear, and within the context of turmoil and suffering. These words, along with "Remember that you are dust and  to dust you shall return" are comforting words to me.
       I appreciate the perspective correction; particularly these days with the escalation of rant and the extreme need to be right. I am guilty of this type of thinking. This causes me to miss out on the bigger picture and the beauty of our world and our lives. So, this Lent (Spring) I am going to quiet my mind and sharpen my senses to watch the season unfold. It is going to be pretty glorious to experience Spring!
      And there will be a visual aid for this journey: St. Peter's Episcopal Church, Paris, KY is displaying a special exhibit for Lent titled, Be Still. It will have work that evokes stillness or a sense of calm. My offering for the exhibit is a painting inspired by Psalm 46 (shown above.)The exhibit goes up Sunday, March 9, 2014 and will be on display through Sunday, April 13, 2014.  St. Peter's is located at 311 High Street in Paris, KY (right behind the courthouse.

How to be Lovely--Henderson Style

absorbing the  loveliness 

I have just arrived back from teaching a two-day workshop in Henderson, KY and it was a lovely experience. My lodging was a charming cottage near downtown and just two short blocks from the Ohio River. In the bedroom was a large photo of Audrey Hepburn and a book on Audrey's wit and wisdom lay prominently on the dresser. The title of that book, by Melissa Hellstern established the theme for my stay in Henderson, How to be Lovely. 

      I knew I would be learning a lot this weekend when I opened the book to this quote from Audrey:  "There is a Dutch saying, 'Don't fret: it will happen differently anyway.' I believe that."  Naturally, I had been fretting for several months about this workshop; traveling by myself (Adventure is not my middle name), would I be an effective teacher, would I forget to bring something really important, and on and on. My experience from the past is that the workshops always turn out very well, because the participants are so interesting in their lives and in their perception of the world. It never ceases to amaze me. There is a lot of beauty out there just waiting to be expressed.

But even before the workshop began, I was impressed. Henderson is a river town of about 25,000 people, and they have 4 art galleries! I went to two art exhibit receptions the evening before the workshop began. Though we had been worrying about bad weather of the snow variety with the timing of the workshop, this evening, there were sirens going off warning of severe weather of the tornado variety. Even so, a very healthy crowd turned up for these receptions. This was clearly a town that appreciated artistic expression. My being there was mainly due to a Wonder Woman named Jule McClellan, who is the founder and director of the Ohio Valley Art League (OVAL). She had attended one of my workshops in Lexington and wanted to share that experience with her artistic colleagues in western Kentucky.

     The next day broke in a beautiful fashion as we gathered at the Henderson County Public Library. Henderson is one of the spots where Audobon (there is a wonderful Audubon Museum at a state park just outside of Henderson) alighted and so all around town, there are sculptures created from Audubon's lithographs. Appropriately, there were owls at the museum. There was plenty of intelligence in our workshop as well, and a lot of stories. One woman had just moved to Henderson from California, and she signed up for the class even before she moved. As it turned out, she was seated near a native Californian whose family had owned land in the redwood forests when she was a child. I had already seen the work of several participants the evening before and knew there would not be a lack of creativity. Another participant had set a goal to write, illustrate and publish a book and had accomplished that. Everyone had been to beautiful places and they had beautiful minds, too! We set about working to express our visions.

     It turns out that using watercolor and pastel to create paintings does allow for individual creation, no matter how much experience the painter has. Within our group the experience level ranged from absolute beginner to thoroughly accomplished in multiple disciplines and media. The qualities of watercolor and pastel are complementary, so that each artist's strengths are allowed to shine. And shine they did:

We all learned from one another. We were able to revel in each other's color sense and exuberance or tranquility. We had a beautiful day along the Ohio River, but we also enjoyed Hawaii, California, Maysville, and Maine. It was like being in a Pete Seeger song!

     Thank you to Jule and OVAL for this lovely gift!
   

Workshop Prep

In a couple of days I will take my teaching show on the road for the first time. I have been invited to give a two-day workshop through the Ohio Valley Art League in Henderson, KY. There is some prep work! For my workshops and classes, I provide all the materials, so there is watercolor paper to cut and brushes to collect and clean. Are the watercolors in order and do I have the pliers to aid with the stubborn tube caps? And the pastels must all be organized by color (figuring out the color categories is interesting.) I prepare a watercolor underpainting for demonstrating my approach.
      I want to keep everything loose. This is the main premise: first I have an idea of what I want to create. That idea is what directs my technique, rather than the other way around. That will be my approach with workshop participants as well. We will start with their vision of what they want to create and then figure out how to achieve that using watercolor and pastel. My big goal is to help artists to develop their own voice by sharpening vision and honing the work of our hands.

Eat an Apple Today!

I did not attend the big debate on creationism yesterday (February 4, 2014) or watch it live-streamed. I did read about it in the papers this morning and hear about it on the radio. It was pretty predictable that no twain was going to be met. Admittedly, I am more of the Bill Nye the Science Guy camp and why wouldn't I be? I love the wonder and awe of our world and the universe. To me, that is what is missing in Creationist, Ken Ham's approach (you could say his ham-strung approach.) The main point seems to be having all the answers, now and forever.
      I am no theologian or bible scholar, but  listening to creationists, I wonder, what is the point of humanity? If the story stops almost 2000 years ago, what are we here for? Does humanity not have anything to add to narrative of creation? And what is the point of that tempting fruit in the middle of the garden? We humans are curious and creative. We are mortal, too, so that as we return to dust, humanity might be refreshed by future humans. Evolution is pretty refreshing, too. Sure, life isn't always a stroll in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, but it is always interesting and often amazing if your eyes are open and your senses alive. Thank you, Eve! I think I'll have an apple now.

     

1-4-14 Weekly Watercolor

Injured Hawk, watercolor, 7 x 5"

My weekly has been rather weakly--but here is my first watercolor of 2014. My number one resolution for this new year is to focus on working in the studio and putting in the time. Making small watercolor paintings is a good way to settle into a new rhythm.
     This hawk appeared in our backyard in December. Our neighbor told David that he had called the experts in to check on this wounded creature, but the hawk had departed before they arrived. David spotted the hawk the next day in our apple tree. This past summer we had a small flock of what we figured to be sharp shinned hawks. We are crediting their presence with our preserving our apple crop--they kept the smaller songbirds away. I believe that this is a Cooper's hawk from the markings, eyes and squared off tail. Painting the hawk has helped me to appreciate its beauty.
    There is always something interesting to see and I hope to spend 2014 immersed in seeing and painting!

My Most Maddening Painting

It started before Halloween. I was going to make a painting recycling the bottom of a cupboard drawer for the support. The painting would be a celebratory remembrance of a wonderful French dinner under my favorite tree in Strasbourg, France; a massive and ancient plane tree, full of knobs from decades (centuries?) of pollarding. The first layer was a sort of "staining" layer in acrylic. I wanted the grain of the wood to show through. I chalked in drawings of David and Mary.  So far, so good...

 Then, I began working on the visages of Mary and David.  Mary's eyes came out fairly convincingly. The goal was to have a cursory go over with acrylic and then add oil (from oilsticks) for detail and richness. I was very happy with the shorthand description of the tree.

Working along, Mary and David both off to a good start, or so I thought. David was not happy with his open mouth. To me, it looked like he was in the middle of a Francophile rhapsody, but the customer is always right (even though he is not a customer!)  I should have stuck with Mary as she is right now!







I took a photo of David with his mouth shut and used it to adjust his image. David was happy with the results and proclaimed the representation obituary worthy (!) I guess he can die happy... I thought Mary was reasonable, too. But, David felt her representation to be off. And so started an intense period of revisionism.

This was an interesting exercise, because, although I was quite frustrated in not being able to get it right, the work was exhilarating. I had endless energy to work and scrape, work and scrape. Still, it was not coming together.







One has to be able to both see the image accurately, and yet translate the visual information into abbreviations that read well from a distance. Too much information looks cartoonish and off from a distance.



I remember what I have told students, to always return to looking. Get your first hand knowledge and use it. Don't make assumptions, don't figure you know something before you know it! I made a drawing of Mary to see what I've been overlooking and/or over-emphasizing. I like the drawing, but it didn't help. I stayed up until 3:30 am working on Mary, but she was playing hard to get! So, I gave up and figured what I learned from this exercise was worth enough. I did not have to have it end exactly like I had planned.




So, I put myself in the painting. It was an evening I wanted to remember: sitting under this beautiful tree, having my third goat cheese salad of the trip (this one made with phyllo dough) drinking a red Alsacian wine in my favorite little Alsacian glasses. This is the first time I've included myself in a painting. Painting myself was fairly easy. We know we have preconceived ideas about our own likeness, so we have to be particularly careful and objective; really focusing on abstracting out the image. I was in the picture in no time at all! Or maybe, David just figured he shouldn't say anything about it...!

David even made the frame for the painting. I'm going to hang it where the old cupboard used to be. We can remember a fine trip to France and a wonderful evening. Though this was a maddening exercise, it also reminded me that I love the challenge of looking and thinking; translating what I see to the surface of a painting, being objective and subjective to make a convincing representation. I think I'll keep painting.
Happy New Year!

Resist Temptation

Thanksgiving Day 2013, 7 x 5"
oil pastel/watercolor

We are in the holiday season and there are a lot of temptations. It is the season to give in to those temptations. I'm giving in to the temptation of resist: where a medium is used that repels another medium that is laid over. My dominant mix of media are watercolor and pastel. I've been intrigued by oil pastel and its added quality of resisting water based media. I thought it would be fun to make a watercolor/oil pastel painting, starting with the oil pastel. This scene, with a canopy of pear tree leaves worked well, because I could use the oil pastel to create the spaces where light shines through. It was also useful in rendering the light layer of snow on the grass and on the hedge. The leaves were then created by rich layers of watercolor. The most striking thing about this setting was the intense color of the leaves: red and green with highlights of golden ochre. After a good bit of paint had been put down, I went for a walk to let things dry. When I came back, I added more layers and finished detailing with watercolor. Since I can, I added oil pastel on top. This made for a nice little painting finished in an afternoon.  Thanksgiving Day 2013 will be for sale at MS Rezny Studio/Gallery for Holiday Revels, and it can be found in the drawers at the back of the gallery. If you buy the work during Holiday Revels 40% of the price will go to Hospice of the Bluegrass and their art fund. You can buy gifts of art and help an important local institution at the same time!

Holiday Revels

MS Rezny Studio/Gallery

903 Manchester Street, Distillery District

Thursday, December 5th

4 - 7 pm

40% of purchase price will go to

Hospice of the Bluegrass fund for art