Friday night #montreal
Taken at Café Aléatoire
hollyfriesen's posterous
Taken at Café Aléatoire
Open Studio til 8pm tonight #sthenri #montreal #seeart
Taken at Le Complexe du Canal Lachine
Today on the easel
Taken at Berkshires, Mass.
Living, breathing landscape
Iris Beardv
Walkin' the woods of Connecticut
After all the hustle and bustle of The Artist Project in Toronto, I headed for the hills of Connecticut to spend time with Walt. He introduced me to the gentle, rolling forested landscape of that region and I fell in love with it. We walked through the quiet of the forest every day and fed our senses from head to toe which nourished our souls deeply. In particular, we walked the many trails of White's Woods, a 4,000 acre nature reserve that filled us both with a much needed peace of mind and heart.
Soft, tender moss greens.
sleeping nature slowly awakening in the warmth of the rising temperatures.
This particular forest felt so friendly and alive that we couldn't help stopping to touch all the textures along the way.
Can you see the little turtle sitting atop the grasses? This was such a quiet, reflective spot of beauty.
Root Love.
One of the most beautiful monuments I have ever come across. What a remarkable gesture of love to leave behind these beautiful forests for the generations to come. If only more humans were such generous visionaries.
White quartz scattered throughout the woods would glisten and sparkle when the sunlight caught it's jewel like surfaces.
When we came across this pond, we were overwhelmed by a cacophony of sounds which we soon realized were the strange quacking sounds of hundreds of unthawing wood frogs! Most magnificent to witness this phenomena, we hung around the pond for quite a while just listening. We became enchanted with the place and found it most difficult to leave.
beautiful, curvilinear lines.
I am so in love with the trees, they seem to grow more beautiful with every passing day. They carry so much mystery, love and beauty within their textures and shapes that I almost can't contain myself when I am near them.
Walkin' White's Woods with Walt (in Connecticut)
Warmth streaming through the open branches, first signs of earth's fecundity bursting forth...a good day to be alive on this planet spinning through space!
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Rocks in Moonlight
Kinda exciting to have one's painting show up in the Montreal paper, Le Devoir
The article is in French and talks about the project TimeRaiser who purchased the painting from myself and 19 other Montreal artists.
The paintings are then auctioned off for volunteer hours, not money. I think this is such a fantastic project in that it promotes art and artists while using time instead of money in exchange for the artwork.
So often artists are asked to donate their works to projects like these and so often we do, willingly but how refreshing that TimeRaiser has recognized that artists actually need to be paid money so that
they can continue on with their work.
Bravo to TimeRaiser for an excellent concept all round!
The Studio in Preparation for The Artist Project
There is so much going on in my life at the moment, that it threatens to overwhelm me at times but as I enter the studio doors the smell of paint dissolves the fears, worries, concerns and as I begin to paint, images fill my body and replace the chattering squirrel thoughts in my brain. Lately, with much love and concern in my heart for Walt and his current health challenge (as he calls it) , I have been painting from an open heart and letting this love flow into the painting. It is what I call BIG Love, a love inspired by Walt, and by beauty and our collective humanity, a love so large that it envelopes all the petty little worries and fears that gnaw away at my everyday soul. Painting really is like deep prayer for me. It restores, revitalizes and informs me. It is my connection to something much greater than my small self.
I always seem to paint like a madwoman just before a show, something about that looming deadline that urges me ever forward. I work on multiple canvases at a time, paint pouring out of my brushes like they are on fire! One painting leads to another, sometimes I am painting several from the same palette. The studio is charged with energy as the paintings emerge from the chaos, I discard some and rework others. Now there are only days left and slowly a group of paintings presents itself.
Roaring RIver ~ Final Version ~ a painting for and of the earth
Roaring River / 72" x 54" / acrylic on canvas
I think this one is finally finished! I have been dancing in this river for almost a month now! I started without my usual reference photos or sketches and just from the inside of my belly! I let the paint splash and fall how it wanted to as I thought about and felt all the pain of the earth as it sighs and heaves under it's heavy human load. I am so in love with this planet and it breaks my heart a thousand times to see what we have become as we stand apart from the earth and think ourselves to be greater than the whole. This painting is for the earth and of the earth. I can think ofnothing else to do but paint my way through these turbulent times of change.
Color is a language with soft whispers or passionate vibrations.
Some details of the canvas that are difficult to see in a jpeg. Lots of tar gel, sometimes applied with tenderness and loveand sometimes applied in a violent release of anger.
