When my beautiful daughter Cecelia won a scholarship to live and go to high school in Germany at age 16 for a WHOLE YEAR (!!!) I missed her so desperately that I started painting paintings of her at all stages of her childhood. In a miraculous way, those paintings brought her back to me during the endless 12 months of separation.
In a similar way, the paintings and studies for paintings I'm making for my upcoming show bring Iceland and Norway back to me. The studies below are quick and gestural, drawn from sketches and from the images in my mind's eye.
The trick will be to make finished works that share some of the energy of these studies. If I could, I'd spend one whole year just making large scale study after study like the last one shown here, acrylic on board. I wouldn't worry about producing a certain number of finished pieces, I'd just paint my heart out. And at the end of the year, I'd see where I'd been. Maybe that will be what 2014 holds for me. We'll see. There's a still-fresh 2013 to live first!
These studies are pure magic! So powerful and so light! Yes, please, paint your heart out! When it is that stunning, we just cry for more!!
Posted by: Cathy | February 17, 2013 at 12:26 PM
Thanks for the comments, Marly, Lucy, Beth and Sandra! Sandra, it WAS awful. I felt I couldn't hold her back, though... and the year turned out to be a major turning point in her life.
Posted by: Laura | February 12, 2013 at 08:36 AM
I love exuberance and energy in art--these certainly have both.
Maybe you and Beth should meet up in Iceland some day...
Posted by: marly youmans | February 03, 2013 at 08:25 PM
These are terrific, I especially like the third, with that menacing angry red blossoming volcano.
A belated happy New Year and happy birthday to you!
Posted by: Lucy | February 01, 2013 at 03:08 PM
I know what you mean, Laura. It's very difficult to keep that initial energy, as well as the initial gesture, in a finished work. Doing bigger pieces, quickly, one after another, without worrying about producing "finished" work would help a lot - I agree with that too! Maybe we are both headed in that direction, with Iceland as inspiration!
Posted by: Beth | February 01, 2013 at 10:06 AM
These are so wonderfully energetic!
I couldn't imagine Charlie leaving now for a year! That must have been awful! :0)
Posted by: sandra busby | February 01, 2013 at 09:59 AM