Painting Empty

"Downtown Shadows"

Oil on Paper

7" x 11.5"

What do I mean painting empty? Feeling empty, tired, But what really is "empty"? For me empty means, ironically, too full, had a tiring day or week of work. It means I need "defragging": clearing out all the garbage in my brain so I can create. Today, I decided no ideas coming so, just show up at the easel to paint. I think the process of painting defragged my brain; just the process of doing it helped empty my brain, made me feel clearer. This is the defragging painting above, quickly photographed and probably will see stuff to change later.

Do you feel this way at times?  Please feel free to share with me your feelings and your methods to jump start yourself  are post here are click my facebook link to share on  Judy Holder's Studio.

White Dog

5"x 5" oil on panel

I often like to leave some paintings with some mystery to them.  Just a white dog running in the sun feeling good. 

Mushroom & Sweet Pepper

8"x 8" oil on panel

I love how the portobello mushrooms look this year as subjects for still life painting. Their unusual shapes and subtle colors offer opportunities to play with paint; in this case, the muted "flesh" of the mushroom reflected the blue-green backdrop. The pepper gave me a chance to play with cool and warm reds to create form, and contrast the neutral tones of the mushroom. This organic mushroom and sweet pepper came from Fiddleheads Food Co-op in New London.  

Portabella Mushroom Family

Oil on Pan
8"x 8"
SOLD

I could not resist creating a still life oil painting of a beautiful organic portabella mushroom I bought last week from the Fiddleheads Foods Co-op in New London, CT.  This one had little mushrooms growing at its base; it made me think of a family or of a "hobbit home"of mushrooms.  The beautiful white stem provided me with an opportunity to depict for the reflected red and blue-green colors of the background. 

First Tomato

6 x 6" oil on panel

This was our first tomato of the year ( a late tomato) which I decided deserved to be the subject of a painting.  I thew in some of our green basil from the garden  as a color compliment to the redness of the tomato.  Just having fun with the plasticity of the oil paint and striving for subtle color variations in the white table to add interest to the simplicity of the composition.

Empty House

10" x 10" oil on Panel

This is part of a series of paintings about empty buildings.  Recently I went back to this old house in Mystic CT and it was smoldering embers, guess someone burned it down.   The day I took reference photos, the light was casting strong shadows and there was a lot of warmth in the colors of the house.  Of course I took some liberties to push the value contrast and the house color to an intense warm red/orange against warm and cool lights. 

Braking Horse

8" x 8"oil on panel

Enjoyed finding simple shapes and playing with the paint on this one. When I did this painting, I had been looking at art works by Fritz Scholder and Richard Diebenkorn.

To see some of Scholder's work go to: http://www.nmai.si.edu/exhibitions/scholder/introduction.html and to see one of Diebenkorn's paintings go to the link below (scroll down about 3/4's of the way on page)

http://www.wildenstein.com/exhibits/noma/noma.html

Red Spirit Wolf

8" x  8" acrylic on panel

At a recent art show someone walked into my booth and asked "Why did you paint that dog without eyes?"

If you have to ask....

This painting was but one of a series I've done lately influenced by Fritz Scholder.  While I was in art school earning my BFA, the emphasis was on traditional Western European art; although Scholder had been a major figure in the 20th Century art world for decades, I discovered him only very recently, and quite by accident.  (I believe it was from a book I found at the Connecticut College library, which is a wonderful resource.)  I had no idea until just a few months ago that he had died in 2005; I only knew him through the works I was studying, and so to me he was (and is) very much a living presence.  (I'm not sure that I ever bothered to look up his biography, so focused was I on his prints and paintings, and absorbing all he could teach me about color and form.  What can I say?  I'm an artist.)

The National Museum of the American Indian is having a major retrospective Scholder's work in NYC and in D.C. which I hope to see this year:

http://www.nmai.si.edu/exhibitions/scholder

My FVAC Juried Show Entries

Last month I entered two paintings into the 2008 Opened Juried Show at the Farmington Valley Arts Center in Avon,  CT.  The show is called Interpretations and Inspirations, juried by Philip Janes.    These two canvases were accepted into the show. 

Animal skulls lend themselves to much interpretation and reflections of color.  I see the skull not just related to death but a structure that life emanates from.  Of course, the childhood fascination for digging up things in the backyard or woods that your parents find weird or dirty ("Don't you dare bring that thing into the house!") - and the ability to hold onto that fascination into adulthood - is a very useful tool for an artist!  

Check out the Farmington Valley Arts Center website:

www.fvac.net/

Wolf Mystery

6x6", oil on panel

Wolves have always felt like kin to me.  No, this is not a painting from a live wolf; I painted this image from one of my sculptures.  I turned the studio lights down low, just enough to see my paints, and lit the wolf head from the side.  When the painting began,  I had no idea how it was ever going to turn out.  In fact, I embarked on the process expecting it not to work because the room was so dark!  Now and then I turned the lights on to see what was happening.  I was surprised to see the image of the wolfhead appearing before me on my painting panel, in a way that seemed magical to me.

A Cup A Day

6 x 6" oil painting on panel

Originally I was attempting a more "representational" image, but the result was lifeless.  So I decided to take a risk and literally wipe it out.  In the process of finding the lights, I was able to complete the painting.