Finding Beauty Every Day

Early in the morning on Paris Pike

Previously, I have summed up my artistic endeavors with the tag line: Painting Everyday Wonders. Of late, this message has felt a little confining. The truth is that every day I am working in more ways than painting, and my expression can be delivered through means other than visual art. Sometimes my work is not about making, but simply perceiving.  I wanted to come up with a tag line that more accurately states my case and I came up with: Finding Beauty Every Day. When I am doing my true work, I find beauty, every day and it is usually everyday beauty. Often I am out on a walk when I find beauty. Sometimes I am teaching a non-self-confessing artist about working with watercolor and pastel and I notice a special gift that they have for design or color or whimsy.  Perhaps I am singing McFerrin's Psalm 23 with the choir or helping to hang a show of floral paintings. And I do spend time in my studio making paintings of everyday wonders. That is certainly part of my work.

Evensong, 12 x 12" watercolor/pastel on paper mounted on board
scene driving home on Paris Pike after choir practice

     Recently, I took part in a Music that Makes Community workshop (the photo above was taken on my way to join other St. Peter's folk to travel up to Minneapolis.) It was a wonderful experience. We worked on ways to bring people together through singing. We were urged not to focus on excellence at the expense of engaging people (who might be reluctant singers.) A founder of Music that Makes Community observed that while excellence is always important, perhaps a more appropriate goal might be beauty. I have been thinking about this ever since.  Beauty. You can strive for beauty, but you can also find it.  You can be sensitive to beauty and appreciate it when it is not so obvious in our distracted world. Inclusiveness can be beautiful.

     Beauty is just the thing that I am seeking and I hope to find it every day.

The Fleeting Season

Underlit at Carnico, 7 x 5", watercolor/pastel

You have to look fast to catch this season, and this has been particularly true this year. The redbud and the dogwood came out at the same time. Still, or maybe because of this, it was a spectacular early Spring. The redbud budded out and was in full fig in a day. I have two different vantage points from which to enjoy the redbuds and my personally favorite time is in the morning, just as the sun is cresting. To the right, is a country view, at Lake Carnico in Nicholas County. I was struck by this scene because the spring green leaves were illuminated from underneath.

      The view on the right is outside my window in Lexington.  When I do my morning exercises, I am treated to this view.  It had been quite drab during the late winter months. Then the tender spring greens appeared. Now it is so leafed out that there is

Village View, 7 x 5", watercolor/pastel

not much to see except the greens that lead to Summer. To everything there is a season....

You may see these paintings at MS Rezny Studio/Gallery, 903 Manchester Street in Lexington, KY. I will use my new work space to put them in frames and they will be in the drawers at the Gallery soon.

4-24-14 WeeklyWatercolor

Mossy Rocks in the Green Wood, 5 x 7", watercolor on Arches paper

I just noticed today that the spring green is really coming out and starting to reflect into the interior of my home. It is lovely! Last May, I took a hike with friends from St. Peter's and we spent a beautiful afternoon at Anglin Falls, south of Berea, KY. I don't believe I've ever been in such a green world. It was like spending time in an alternate universe--and it was so close to home.
      I made this little watercolor to remember that green world. Give me a few days and I'll have it all packaged up and available in the drawer at M S Rezny Studio/Gallery, 903 Manchester Street, Lexington, KY. You can have a little piece of the green world! Happy Spring!

Making Color Hum

Moss and Wild Phlox, 5 x 7", watercolor on Arches paper

      You always hear teachers say that they learn a lot from teaching, and this is true for me as well. Every time I teach a class or workshop, I know that I will gain new insights from participant-students. At my last workshop, we were talking about using only the three primary colors to mix up all the colors in our watercolor layers. Jule suggested that I check out Making Color Sing: Practical Lessons in Color and Design, by Jeanne Dobie. So I did, and it is a marvelous book. I couldn't wait to try out the particular colors that she especially values. I ordered a couple of colors that I had not tried before and set to work on painting exclusively with the recommended three primary colors.
      I love mixing colors, but there was something amiss for me. It was too high key and not nearly "murky" enough. I was itching to reach for my preferred colors--and even more than that, the "used" palettes from my classes and workshops. I always encourage my students to take their palettes with them, but they often leave them behind and I then use them for my paintings. They are actually, quite splendid, with all sorts of amazing colors premixed. They provide the same deep and indescribable colors found in nature. Then my only task is to bring out the pure and bright in spots. It really works for me. I guess I prefer my colors to hum, and even at a low register, than to sing!

Pre-prepared palettes that make my paintings hum! The bottom painting on the right is  made with the three primary colors suggested by Jeanne Dobie. Above that is a painting filled with my pre-mixed, preferred palette paints.

3.5 Leaf Clover

Sometimes you find what you need

Today, everything is bursting out, and all at once. Maybe the blooms want to have at least one day of glory before the freezing temperatures claim their brilliance and buoyancy. The clover was looking bounteous as well, as I set out on a walk (and in the back of my mind, looking for a sign and guidance for a little dilemma.) The clover is my totem plant. I don't consider extra leaf clovers to be good luck, so much as signs that I'm on the right path. So, it was interesting when I turned the corner, admired a lush bunch of clover and thought I spotted a 4-leaf clover. On closer inspection (I plucked it) it had three leaves. The top leaf was a super leaf with two major veins.
        What sort of sign was this, I pondered. Here is what I came up with and perhaps this might apply to you as well. I seem to have been given all the raw materials I need (okay, want). It is just that it has arrived in a different form than I was anticipating. You know about this, too. Life is much more curious, interesting (and sometimes frustrating) than we ever expect it to be.  Our job is to use the raw materials we've been given and create the life that we want and even appreciate the unexpected form that life has taken.

4 veins and 3 leaves

Enchanting April

Enchanting April, watercolor on Arches paper

April is a most welcome month, especially this year. The drabness of winter is at its peak, as all the green things have given up after blast after blast of arctic air. Even the ivy has had it this year. Then, all of a sudden, green happens anew. I love how the daffodils burst forth energetically, even as the trees are bare. Hope returns.
     I've always liked April, but infinitely more so for the past twenty five years after a very special person arrived. She is rather like April herself, full of enchantment. She can play the Waltz of the Flowers cadenza on the harp and run a marathon. She arrived in France and got on the phone to arrange for renting La Maison Rose and made Thanksgiving for twenty in that same house's tiny kitchen (the meal  included 4 pies!) She cares about the huddled masses and was the only one who knew how to firmly, yet lovingly, train Carly. What a gift she has been and she was given to us in April!
   

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.