~Art News,  Fresh Off The Easel~

So who could forget the time spent in the year 2020?!

Fortunately, my time during Covid was an opportunity to be completely isolated, which, from my perspective, gave me the time and space to consider new ways of approaching the canvas. As most of you know, I have been a figurative painter throughout my career.

Because I was “Banned” from doing any business at the gallery and public studio, (Covid19 BAN), it gave me the opportunity to step up to the canvas with no idea as to what I was going to create. Below I discuss my journey into my world of Abstraction

“Joie De Vivre”

Non Objective Designer Abstract, With collage, paint and graphics, 20×20″canvas original acrylic

FROM THE COLLECTION,  “Juxtapositions Of Life”

Every artist becomes restless and questions the validity of their process and creations. I am no different. To continue creating in the same way without exploration can become very mundane, and uninspiring for any artist.

What better time to let go of what works and explore what possibilities exist creatively than the time “The World Stood Still”. I suppose I could say, without hesitation, that it felt like a gift, an opportunity to be completely uninterrupted, without distraction, for weeks on end. Fortunately for me, I took this as a challenge rather than a disastrous disappointment.

We had just purchased our home in Puerto Vallarta on the 6th of March and the world shut down on the 20th of the month. I had an empty space, blank canvases and reminisced fondly of my Masters program experience.

“Isolation is a luxury for a creative”, my panel exclaimed. I learned this in graduate school. They give you a private studio away from everyone and everything so that you learn to be still and listen to the whispers of your brilliance. It took me an entire semester to come up with my thesis for this three year journey, which by the way your panel knows ahead of time and does not feed you to the wolves.

My statement as an artist: “Divine Inspiration is the source of my vision, my life’s work and my greatest joy” That last part was the hardest to swallow, as most all of my paintings were about joy and beauty. But now, with this ominous mutation lingering over humanity, I did not feel so Joyful.

The world conspired in my favor and I took this dark and looming experience and transmuted it for myself. I made the decision to step up to each and every canvas without an idea or concept, a reference or a formula. I just decided to “PLAY” on the canvas. For over a year and a half I practiced playing and found out how much I did not know about creating something with a sophisticated surface. I played with papers, collaging and painting over and over, layer after layer. I started drawing into the surfaces thick with paint, using pencils, markers, crayons and layered again. It was so exciting and inspiring that I could barely contain my joy. And there it was! A new sense of JOY in another genre! I became a child again, just as Picasso had exclaimed, “it took me a lifetime to paint as a child”. Wow, who knew!!

I have since moved on and started to re-introduce my figurative elements back into my work again, as you saw in last weeks post, “Girl Interrupted”, but now with much more passion and luscious surface designs and aha moments!

Of course, I have continued to create new abstract works on a regular basis as well. There is always something new to learn when you are a painter as long as you allow yourself to explore new ways of being through your heart and not through your mind, both as a person and as a painter. How lucky am I.

This abstract collection is also available as Designer Abstract Fine Art Prints. Click here to order groupings now.

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“Joie De Vivre”

IS AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE