PAINTING MY WAY!

 

WORKING ON MY CANVAS

Really i don't paint the generally accepted way.... i like to paint on the floor not facing my canvas on an easel..... I wear a lot of paint.. but it works for me. I am lucky as i am pretty flexible and i am NOT uncomfortable..... i can sit like this for hours.

PAINTERS USE COMPUTERS TOO......

NOMAD SERIES

The Nomad Series of artworks began in September 2005 when i returned from my first trip to the US for the art4people international Art exhibition. Many of the artists involved were all members of the same art site.....Artwanted. Artists whose work I had discovered through the medium of the internet and the computer....These people I can now call friends and have truly inspired and informed my art practice and opened my eyes to the 'bigger art picture'........Patrick Miller, Derek Shockey, Meghan Henley, and of course the Exhibition Catalyst and Event Organizer .... the indefatigable Jessica Torrant

As part of staying organized with my art i spend some time on the computer to both look at other art and to post my own to a few different sites.... some have different functions and some are better than others.....

This has become a fundamental tool of the artist in 2006 and as such one cannot really beat it for learning.... and also to communicate quickly and effectively with other artists..... I see this as becoming interwoven into the very fabric of creating..... the organic nature of it allows one to communicate with people who live great distances apart and may not even speak the same language.... a *Reverse Tower of Babel* so to speak.

Perhaps where artists are living will become less important and what artists create will be greater valued as a result......I see only good in that....... taking art into the world through a myriad of little pathways creates more entry points for both the artist and the viewer,.... after all art IS for everyone......

TRIBAL SERIES: PORTAL TO POWER

 This painting grew from my desire to celebrate the tree as an icon for both growth (of the individual) and as a symbol of respect for the natural elements of our world. Portal evokes for me an element of 'CHOICE' and is part of my desire to celebrate everything I do in the moment of doing.......not to be confused with merely chasing gratification... but putting a smile in the day we find ourselves in...... 

Power the the power of loving ones self ones life and ones planet.....this love of self and planet is the most important road to happiness I know of......I WANT to be who I am and I KNOW what makes me happy.......it is amazing how many do not.....As part of an Artists Challenge on the Art Wanted site I pushed myself a little further by going back....to a painting when I had originally considered it finished.....something I NEVER do......and thanks to Tim Linville a fellow Art Wanted artist... I learned I could create this way too and I am happy with the results..... I LOVE LEARNING!!!

  

Wendy/Redreamer packing up Balingup

One of the most interesting experiences in my life has been living in this small community in the heart of the Western Australian Blackwood River Valley at a tiny village called Balingup.

I came here some 11 years ago and bought a wonderful old house which has been a creative work of art during my stay here. It also gave me the solitude and personal space to PAINT!!! In being relatively isolated it enabled me to develop my own style of Fine Art.......in a way the solitude could drive a person crazy....or one could naturally turn within for direction.....

I found that i could be alone with myself and liked it for a while...... but it leaves one both emotionally, intellectually and creatively hungry after a while and life moves on..........

Deconstructing my home has been thoroughly painful and an emotional rollercoaster. My real foundation for stability is being taken apart minute by minute and the only part that holds me together is taking it one step at a time.

Paintings within Paintings REDREAMING.... THE BEGINNING

One of the most important elements of art is its ability to surprise and connect with the viewer. To see within an image that 'something' to connect to on whatever level .... to explore the idea behind Paintings within Paintings I would have to begin by saying that the starting point was the philosophy of my life.....the old 'half empy half full glass' adage..... and one's perceptions which one faces everyday living.

I always see the 'something that is there' rather than the something that is not... but to that end one also has to also have the CONTRAST..... the very duality gives it some sort of measurement and value.....

In exploring the 'full lived life' i also starting playing with light and dark......and again that duality to me was of interest in its ability to make its 'opposite' VISIBLE'.........

Then i made a jump..... i wanted to do this with my paintings......layering of meanings along with the paint and fabrics and icons..... so i started experimenting not only with metallics.... which i had been playing with for years... but also with glo paint in conjunction with gouache.......to create a hidden layer and a hidden meaning within the canvas.......... for eyes that could see and hearts that could feel...... to redream.....

It has taken me a long time to get this to the point where i am now able to use this with some form of both control and deliberateness.... it has been an enjoyable journey and the story is still being written this has sooooooo many places to go to.....and there is sooooooo much i want to do with it........just watch and see!

To the handful of people who have 'seen'........i have learned so much and from the sharing comes new ideas and new journeys ... thats where artists NEED other artists..... to bounce and reflect back the creative ideas........



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ALPHA in the beginning.

One of the most important things in the creation of art is the relationships we create along the way...artists NEED other artists.....for myself it is particularly obvious and the speed at which i feel i can move along is changing. Every day is a delight and a new world....the story is being written or the painting is bring created...either way the allegory works, it seems to me ANYTHING that increases the connection with another like-minded person is always going to be good for the individual, for art as a whole and for the planet.....

above embellished handcut woodcut image .....

'The word for World is Forest' inspired by Ursula Le Guin