"Ginkos III"

Another piece for the upcoming Women On Paper exhibit at The Etherredge Center in Aiken, SC....

"There's A Song In The Air!"

......And the beautiful sing!!


MERRY CHRISTMAS 2010!!

Living Fossil

This collage was created for an art institute benefit that takes place in October. The Ginko leaf included in the piece was picked up last fall and dried among my other 'collectables' & found objects. I did a little research about Ginko trees as I was trying to think of a title for the piece and found that the Ginko tree is interesting in a number of ways:

"Ginkgoes are often planted in cities not only because they're pretty trees but also because they thrive where air pollution is bad. It's not surprising that ginkgoes are air-pollution tolerant, because they are very primitive plants; they may have evolved when the earth's atmosphere was even more sulphurous and grimy than today, because of erupting volcanoes. In fact, ginkgoes are living fossils."

'Found' Series - (Aimsíodh XVI) - 'Close To The Edge'

The last in the series......

'Found' Series - (Aimsíodh XV) - 'Caillte in Éirann'

I posted this painting a bit too hastily.....after looking at it I wasn't happy with the photo of the painting, I wasn't satisfied with the title and I also felt the painting needed a few more 'tweaks'! So it went back to the studio today and I'm happier w/ the result.
the title "Caillte in Éirinn' is Irish Gaelic for 'lost in Ireland'

'Found' Series - (Aimsíodh XIV) - 'Off The Grid'

'Found' Series - (Aimsíodh XIII) -"On the Edge"

The latest in the 'Found' Series which keeps going....and going!!

(Incidentally....the right side of the painting is actually straight. It may not bother anyone else but it sure bugs me!! I photographed the painting multiple times and the convexity of camera lens evidently alters the image b/c I could never get the edges to be perfectly straight.)

'Found' Series - (Aimsíodh XII) "Beneath the Surface"

'Found' Series - Aimsíodh XI (pr. 'Im-shee-och') 'In The Trenches II'

More of the 'Found' series....a companion piece for the previous post.

'Found Series' -Aimsíodh X (pr. 'Im-shee-och') -'In The Trenches I'

The 10th painting in the series........

'Found Series' -Aimsíodh VIII and IX (pr. 'Im-shee-och')

Two more shell 'portraits'.....of two of the old worn shells.

'Found' Series - Aimsíodh VI and VII (pr. 'Im-shee-och')

These are two more pieces in the 'Found' series. Altho' these aren't collages, I'm posting them here anyway since they're part of the series. These are little 'portraits' of two of the shells I found at Ballybunion. The shells in the previous posts all have holes in them that are a result of being washed and worn in the tide .....So these were fairly 'young' when I saved them from the surf!

'Found' Series - Aimsíodh V (pr. 'Im-shee-och')

The fifth in my 'Found' series of collage paintings. This one was created using hand textured papers, acrylic paint and hemp cord. The collage, which is twice the size of the previous four paintings in the series also includes a small painting of one of the shells from Ireland that inspired the entire series. Aimsíodh is the Irish Gaelic word for 'found'.

'Found' Series - Aimsíodh III & IV (pr. 'Im-shee-och')

My most recent Aimsíodh pieces... #'s III and IV in the 'Found' series. These were inspired by some old mollusk shells I found on the beach in Ballybunion, Co. Kerry Ireland.

'Found' Series - Aimsíodh I & II (pr. 'Im-shee-och')

Collages based on old mollusk shells I found at Ballybunion...a beach in the north of Co. Kerry Ireland. 'Aimsíodh' is the Irish Gaelic word for 'found'.

Ginkos I and II

These two collages were actually done back in March and I failed to photograph them before submitting them to an Atlanta Collage Society Show. The show came down while I was in Ireland and I went up to Atlanta to get them this past weekend. I figured I'd post them even tho' they're not hot off the press! Both are mixed media collage using hand tinted & textured papers w/ dried ginko leaves.

"Two Lilies"

This is another piece I've done for a local fundraiser....this will be my last donation of the year. We have some calla lilies that bloom by our pond every year. I don't know if it was because of the unusually cold winter we had or just what but where we typically have 12 - 15 (+) blooms this year we only had two.....but they were beautiful!

"JOY!!"

My most recent collage was a commission for The Ronald McDonald House here in Augusta, GA. The local chapter of a teacher's sorority commissioned me to do the piece and they wanted the finished product to be a collage that was bright, cheerful and uplifting.....so this is the result. It will hang near the entrance to the garden at our local Ronald McDonald House on Green St.

"Arioso"

This is the third and final piece I've created for the Art Factory fundraiser scheduled for March. It's entitled 'Arioso' because the music (which is barely visible in the background) is from "Arioso" by Jean Sibelius a Finnish composer (1865 -1957). Sibelius was a prolific composer but I'd be willing to bet that "Arioso" is one of his most recognizable pieces. Like "The Meditation from Thais"(see previous post), "Arioso" is also one of those pieces that is part of the repertoire of most classical music students. This is another piece that I played years ago while studying with my violin teacher, Eloy Fominaya.

"Gealach" (pr: gay-lock) - Irish Gaelic for 'Moon'

Another collage completed for the upcoming fundraiser for the Art Factory. The title - - with the help of translation - - is self explanatory......

'THAIS'

This is a piece I've done for a local fundraiser that's coming up in March. It started off being just an abstract design where I planned to use some Ginko leaves I'd saved from the fall. I'd worked on it to a point of feeling that it was 'almost' finished but needed something else and my husband, Bill, took a look at it and saw the woman's figure. She'd been waiting patiently on me! So I put a head on her shoulders and fixed her hair but she didn't get any arms.....read on & you'll understand.

Thaïs (Pronounced tah-eess) is an opera by Jules Massenet to the music of French composer Louis Gallet. The 'Meditation from Thais' is a classical piece that any serious violin student would have played. Even tho' I almost exclusively play traditional Irish music these days, I still have all my classical music and occasionally use it in my collages....my former teacher, Eloy Fominaya would be proud! (Incidentally, I use photocopies of the music...I don't destroy the originals!)

(A little background on the opera helps make sense of the piece.Thaïs, a female, is the main character of the opera which takes place in Egypt, where a Cenobite monk, attempts to convert Thaïs, a devotée of Venus (that's why she did't get arms!), to Christianity, but discovers too late that his obsession with her is rooted in lust; while Thais's true purity of heart is revealed, so is the religious man's baser nature. The work is often described as bearing a sort of religious eroticism....got this from Wikipedia so it's a fact!)

"Thinking of Ireland"

Anyone who knows me very well expects the subject of Ireland to come up within about 10 seconds of being around me! The subject is frequently reflected in my artwork as well. I haven't done any 'Irish-related' artwork in quite some time so I thought I'd revisit the place. This piece was a pure joy!

'Pressure Point'

I enjoyed doing yesterday's piece so much, I decided to go back into the studio today and do a companion piece. This painting contains the same elements as yesterday with the exception that I started straight in with acrylic so the watercolor media isn't in the mix.

'Vanishing Point'

This is an abstract I started on yesterday with my Wednesday painting group 'Women on Paper'. It was too cold to paint outdoors so we got together at The Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art. Most everyone worked on an abstract of some sort. I was pleased enough with the start so I decided to take it into the studio today to finish it up. I started the piece working in watercolor & watercolor pencils....then today I went back into it with acrylic paint, some collage and some gesso...so it's mixed media for sure!

"Local Brevities" - which direction?

Having paper, paint and newspaper left over from the painting I did for the Aiken Retrospective, I decided to do a smaller piece using the same concept....a 'companion piece' so to speak. There was a column in the 1921 Aiken Journal and Review which was entitled "Local Brevities".....it contained tidbits of news about the towns people such as engagements, honors and awards, etc...
Here's my question to anyone who reads this blog......Horizontal or Vertical?