A number of years ago, via mail, a box of striped white and gray stones arrived from a most talented artist: Elizabeth Bunsen.
Little could I guess, that slowly, ever so slowly I would gain an interest in the abstract..the linear...the non-representational...from a handful of rocks and some left over paint.
About this time, on a lazy day with no direction, I scooped up left over paint from muffin tin and finger painted neglected cheap white canvas boards ... childhood revisited. Plus the old nagging adage "Waste Not Want Not."
Little could I guess, that slowly, ever so slowly I would gain an interest in the abstract..the linear...the non-representational...from a handful of rocks and some left over paint.
About this time, on a lazy day with no direction, I scooped up left over paint from muffin tin and finger painted neglected cheap white canvas boards ... childhood revisited. Plus the old nagging adage "Waste Not Want Not."
Running parallel to painting is my second creative outlet.
PHOTOGRAPHY
Much of what I paint, is reflected in those places, people and cultures I capture with my camera.
Spending time in Cambodia, photographing
mysterious stone-faced towers, Banyon trees, temples, elaborately chiseled monuments, mountain loads of strewn rock with ancient carvings, tumbling cairns, kept the concept of abstraction at the forefront.
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| Angkor Vat, Cambodia |
The many piles of Cairns caught my attention and memory of seeing Elizabeth's beautiful tributes to stones, rocks and shells.
So the branching of my artistic journey began. Slowly.
First scribbles with crayon and pastel.
Eventually I tackled the first of my semi-abstract paintings. (36x36) And I sent it out into the world on the web and in a gallery.
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A few more years pass, again I slowly work on abstract design. It is hard. I never seem to know what I am doing? I see other artists' work, who make it look so easy. It is not, for me that is. I wanted to refine the process from ROCKS TO VISTAS.
I recalled the last area we lived in, Havre de Grace, MD with its sweeping views of the Chesapeake Bay, rolling farm land, forests, state park, quaint village, galleries....and then it came....
tumbling out, softer versions of earth, soil, villages, hillsides, trees, lakes...
RiverView Gallery in HDG is showing these last three paintings...fitting that this is where they are, over looking the bay, that served as inspiration.
Inspiration is a humbling gift...a handful of rocks, a pot of left over paint, a photo or two and memories, lots of memories.
Smiles: Sharon
I've never really been "into" abstract art because I don't understand it. It was interesting to read a bit about your inspiration and path. And...I love that next-to-the-last painting. The design, the colors...it looks like it's lit from within, and I can see so many things in that abstract landscape. It's wonderful.
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