Essential Ingredient for Creativity

In reading Jan Phillips' Marry Your Muse, I found a discussion about "active laziness," a malaise that afflicts many of us in western cultures (from The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, Sogyal Rinpoche). Our tendency is to fill our lives with myriad petty projects that keep us from the *real* questions of importance: Why are we here? What are we doing with our lives? Are we honoring our talents by spending our time expressing them? Is my life "living me" or am I living my life? Is my artist's discipline worthy of my artist's dream?

*What is the calling of your heart?*

Time is an essential ingredient for creativity.

I've finished painting for the Amsterdam Whitney Gallery show in November. My postcard for it will be out in the not too distant future. Meanwhile, I've completed another painting in my horse series in the cool palette. This one is "A Society of Friends," 30x30 oil on canvas.

Meanwhile, I ponder some words I heard Georgia O'Keeffe "say" in the TV movie about her life: "I have been absolutely terrified my entire life, and I've never let it prevent me from doing a single thing I've wanted to do." Perhaps this philosophy can help us supplant "active laziness."

Watson Gallery Web Site

Yee---ha! My artwork is now posted on the Watson Gallery (Atlanta, GA) web site! It looks really great. Check it out and see more of what I've been up to recently.

This painting, which was published by Rive Gauche Gallery in the American Art Collector a year ago, is posted on the Watson Gallery home page. It is called "Blaze of Autumn," 24x18. Click on it to view some of my other paintings.

I am really proud to be represented by such a terrific gallery, along with many other exceptional artists, including my friends Wen Ze Chen and David Barranti.

Art Acquisitor Magazine

Greetings, after a long hiatus! Life has been on fast-forward the last month or so! Our daughter Sally Chambers Pias has just completed work on and defended her dissertation for her Phd. in Biochemistry at New Mexico State University. I've been spending my "blog time" taking care of our granddaughter so that her mom could work extra. The hard work paid off--Sally is now "Dr. Pias" and will soon start work on her post-doc fellowship at State University of New York!

I wanted to share a new resource--Art Acquisitor Magazine--that features art work by many of the artists in Amsterdam Whitney Gallery, who represent my art in New York City. See the article and my painting on page 43. You can view this magazine on this link. I really like the quote from Aristotle: "Art not only imitates nature, but also completes its deficiencies."

While I would not always say that my paintings "complete [nature's] deficiencies," I do take liberties to reflect my own emotions and feelings about what I'm painting.

I am currently working on two new series for two upcoming group shows: Amsterdam Whitney Gallery exhibit, Chelsea, New York, NY, Nov. 6-Dec. 1, with the reception Nov. 12th; and Artists' Haven Gallery exhibit in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, Jan. 2010, with the reception Jan. 9th, 2010.

Another WOW!

I am so excited today!! My friend David Barranti sent me this picture of one of my newest paintings, "To the Dance" (30x30 oil), sitting on an easel next to a painting of geraniums by another of our friends, Wen Ze Chen. It is in the ENTRYWAY of my newest gallery representation, Watson Gallery in Atlanta, GA!!! Nothing could make me any happier, unless I get a call saying it is sold!

Museum of Glass in Tacoma

Thanks go to fellow artist Diane Cutter for recommending the Tacoma Museum of Glass! We were able to go to visit it after our Alaska cruise in June.

As Diane says, the museum collection is modest. I enjoyed seeing the Dale Chihuly glass on the bridge connecting the museum with Tacoma downtown. We found we were especially impressed with the educational element there, as they do comparison and contrast for different approaches to the glass art forms. Another fun and admirable addition to their collection is the art glass made from the artwork of inner city children, who drew pictures and wrote stories about the characters they created. Each child receives a glass creation of his/her creature made by the museum workshop group, AND sees the another version of the same creature in the collection of the museum!! What a marvelous way to affirm kids and involve them in art expression at an early age!

The Hot Shop was another treat. Watching glass blowers turn blobs of glass into matched sets of martini glasses for auction was amazing. A fascinating narrative accompanied our up close and personal observation of the artists.

Yahoo!! I have another painting published--this time in the July issue of Western Art Collector (about pg. 8). It's an ad for my gallery in Scottsdale, Rive Gauche. They have seven other new horse paintings from me, as of this week. Exciting!!!

This painting, a 24"x 24" called "Now and Then," is a companion to the one in the ad. That one is 30"x 30".

Our trip to Alaska and Washington state has put me waaaaay behind on my posts, but I hope to do better from this point forward.

More Iris Farm Dividends

Our second trip to the Hondo Iris Farm this season was more prolific art-wise than our previous photography session. We spent several hours painting on site, as well as photographing and drinking in the beauty of even more hundreds of stunning irises.

No painting can truly capture what our senses reveal. My first feeble attempt at grasping the "feel" of the garden in the context of the Hondo Valley is here--a 5"x7" palette knife oil on black board, "Iris Spring."

I learned, once AGAIN, that I am much happier and more comfortable working on a dark ground as opposed to white. My second effort was painted on white linen and required far more struggle! More tomorrow.

I wonder if John Singer Sargent was right when he said, “Color is an inborn gift, but appreciation of value is merely training of the eye, which everyone ought to be able to acquire.” Maybe I have trained my eye; maybe not enough.