Welcome!!!

BYBYNJ@gmail.com

www.reesepaintings.com

"The true painter strives to paint what can only be seen through his world." ~André Malraux


After a year of intermittant "painter's block"  I am working again in my studio, and feeling in a tentative positive state. Painting is a solitary activity, and as artists, we are often working in a vacuum. Unless we have a show hanging, reaction to the work is minimal. With several pieces underway, I decided that perhaps if I write about what I am doing or am attempting to do, it might act somewhat as a muse for me as well as give me some feedback on the work I am creating -- hence the establishment of this blog. 

As for the blog title, traditional, representational painting is a language for expressing what’s visible. But I feel my work is the most successful, and most interesting, when focused on things not entirely visible. I paint what I see but also what I sense and feel by utilizing my interior and unseen world --- in other words, the invisible world. Plein air work or  studio work from photographs are only touchstones or landmarks which guide me to other inner spaces. By so doing, I find that I am pushing the boundaries between representational and abstract work.

You can enlarge the images in this blog by clicking on them.


Mar 2, 2011

What to Take Where

I have been busy going through inventory to decide what to take down to show the owner of the New Jersey gallery on Friday, and what to keep out for the ARTWORKS group show of recent works for the Ledyard Gallery at the Howe Library in April. ARTWORKS is a group I formed about 9 years ago in town as a refuge for artists in our little village to get together, hold shows, critique work, and hold workshops. 

I have decided for the Howe show to take the large Cranberry Bog painting shown in an earlier posting, and this one -- 
When Summer Turns Gold  18 x 18  oil on canvas

 The above was a rather pivotal painting for me -- it was the beginning of my stretch away from realism in my landscapes, as I began to open up and loosten up. 

 As for the NJ Gallery, it is hard to know what to take because the work she handles seems to be all over the place. She did request a few specifics, and I will take them, including this little triptych 





 October Silence (3) 4 x 4 panels framed together (see below)


 Another one I plan to take is one from last year which I just totally reworked, and I am much more satisfied with it. In life, it is not as dark as it appears here on the bottom half, and the blue sky not quite as fake a blue..

"The Breezes, Awakening our Faces"  30 x 30  oil on canvas
  
So yet again, I am preparing to go away from home and studio. This time to go to the NJ gallery, and over the weekend  to celebrate grandson Nate's fifth birthday. Still besotted by knights and castles, he has opted to return to Medievil Times, a show and restaurant in Lyndhurst, NJ, where he can see knights actually jousting, and eat food with his hands, served by "wenches."  (When we were in NC this Thanksgiving for a family reunion to bury my father in law's ashes, at the cemetary, Nate whispered in an awesome tone that "Knights are buried here!" because he saw grave markers with the Celtic cross on them! ) Then I am babysitting Monday while my daughter and husband go to the opera, and then back home. 
Labels: ,

1 comment:

  1. Maureen TesoroApril 19, 2011 at 6:17 PM

    Maureen Tesoro said: This is a lovely painting. the mood is peaceful,poetic and inviting. I like the impressionistic brushstroke and your choice of warm colors in the foreground,and pale blue-gray water in the middle ground. I find myself entering the painting on the lower left and drifting back to the triangular shape of the water which leads my eye from left to right toward the apex of the triangle and then my attention turns back across the horizon line from right to left until I come to an opening in the far left which leads my eye upward to an immense sky. The strong blue horizon line which cuts the painting in half enables me to enjoy the atmospheric effects of the billowing white clouds and clear blue beautiful sky. All the elements of art are used very succesfully in this painting which makes for an enjoyable experience for the viewer.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)