studiothoughts

Pink Flowers

2008-08-29T22:49:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple new floral paintings I completed recently. I started with a bright pink ground which I find to be a very happy color but not always an easy one to work on with other colors. Maybe that's why all the flowers are pink. I want these to be very decorative... a play of organic shapes against geometric forms with "pretty" colors dancing all around to please the eye. The most difficult part was trying to simplify the flowers and still retain their identity. Tomorrow on my camping trip, I'm going to focus on drawing flowers.... first realistically and then as an abstraction. Perhaps if I isolate the problem, I can learn to overcome the difficulty. Haven't we all drawn pages and pages of hands and feet?

"Pink Lilies" by Barbara Levine copyright 2008 and
"Dancing Daisies Over Peony Clouds" by B. Levine copyright 2008

Catching Up

2008-08-24T16:25:00.000-07:00

I just looked up a couple of other art festivals in Oregon and discovered some really wonderful artists. How do they do it? I better get back into my studio and get to work! But no, my plan is to take a break and focus on home and garden before everything goes to rack and ruin. Art will just have to wait.

Here are a couple more recent paintings that try to capture the beauty of the motherhood and the nurturing spirit in us all. "Momma Bed" is about how newborns will sleep and sleep like little angels, as long as they are on their momma's chest. Put them down and they scream bloody murder! "Surrounded By Love" celebrates the BIG momma hug......it is so much more yummy than being hugged by a skinny person (of course that's nice too).

"Momma Bed" by Barb Levine copyright 2008

"Surrounded By Love" by Barb Levine copyright 2008

Summer Art Festivals

2008-08-23T20:23:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm back! I finished preparing for and attending the CAG
Clothesline Sale and the Silverton Fine Arts Festival and so have stopped painting and started cleaning. It's amazing how every pile and mess amasses to it's maximum proportion when you're busy trying to make deadlines. I have to remember next year to have my paintings completed way ahead of time and not drive myself crazy before these art events. Unfortunately, I love to start artwork but find it really difficult to complete a piece unless some horrible deadline is hanging over me. These sales force me to finish the ten or so paintings in progress that are so close, but not quite there. But often I call them finished, varnish them but later go back and make changes......I just can't force a painting to completion. If I am very persistent it usually resolves itself eventually but, for me, it takes a lot of thinking and experimenting with layers of paint.

The Clothesline Sale in Corvallis was great. I sold lots of artwork and reconnected with lots of old friends and acquaintances. I also received lots of compliments for my work from other artists, which feels pretty good as well.

The Silverton Fine Arts Festival was good in some ways but the sales were disappointing. I felt most people were just looking for inexpensive items and as a painter, I felt out of place. Most of the booths featured crafts, despite the title of the festival, jury process and entry fee. Many people told me I should show at the Corvallis Fall Festival, suggesting this wasn't really the right venue for my work. But there were some positives as well. The park setting under the tall evergreens was lovely and I met lots of nice people and enjoyed talking with them about art. My booth neighbors were very nice and shared lots of good advice about marketing. They had all been in lots of outdoor art shows and said it was nearly impossible to predict when one would have good or mediocre sales.

I did come away from both festivals determined to focus more on small paintings. People of course love the diminutive price but I also think they don't worry so much about where they are going to put it when they get home. I've heard "I love your work but don't have any wall space left in my house" about a hundred times. Personally, I never let that stop me from buying a painting I love. I just bought a gorgeous piece from a new artist (to me)....Delana Bettoli in Silverton.

Here are a couple of the paintings (Petite Narratives) I sold at the Clothesline Sale. "A Mother's Dilemma" addresses the age-old conflict of caring for your child and working to create a better world for your child. "I Could Fly" is a childhood memory of loving, loving, loving airplane rides which really does let you fly when you are little. You just need a strong "big person" to propel you through the air. I wish I still could fly like that!

"A Mother's Dilemma" by Barbara Levine copyright 2008
"I Could Fly" by Barbara Levine copyright 2008

Peace Pig Holds Artist Hostage

2008-07-27T20:15:00.000-07:00

Well, I have been doing some paintings that I want to share on my blog, but lately most of my time has been taken up by a pig. She is quite large (about four feet long, three feet high) and although she has a lovely body, it was not so easy to paint since I am accustomed to flat squares and rectangles as painting supports. The goal was to make her so beautiful that someone at the Old Mill School auction would buy her and thus donate money for this wonderful school. Her name is "Peace Pig" and she promotes love and goodwill towards all creatures. The phrases on her body read, "May your troubles be less and your blessings be more", "Imagine Peace", "May your heart be filled with love and laughter" and "Hogs united against greed." I hope she brings at least some of these things into the world because painting her sure stressed me out!

Third Annual Community Art Show

2008-06-28T07:26:00.000-07:00

Here is a new piece that will be on display at the Giustina Gallery in Corvallis during the month of July. It was inspired by my daily walks through the fields with my dear dog, Jamaica. Neither she nor I look like this, but it's the memory of the walk and the openness of the landscape that I'm trying to express. Here's to all the dedicated dog walkers!

"Grasslands" copyright 2008 Barbara Levine

Floral Arrangements

2008-06-27T23:58:00.000-07:00

This is the final sample in my set of themes introduced earlier. After my show in 2007, "Seven Years Later", I wanted to paint subjects that were fun and easy after a year of artwork which focused on figures and spiritual themes (very difficult!). I decided that flowers would be just the thing and got to work with slow contour drawings and trying to match the colors I saw before me. Much to my dismay, I wasn't having any fun at all and so quickly gave up on the idea of painting florals. But recently I give floral arrangements another try and have been fairly happy with the results. I decided to take a more designed approach, using the beautiful flowers as inspiration, but letting myself feel free to flatten the space, simplify the forms and make up my own colors. Leaving realism behind and concentrating on the formal elements of art (color, value, shape, etc.) allows me to take a more playful approach with my artwork.

"Helen's Bouquet" copyright 2008 Barbara Levine

Petite Narratives

2008-06-27T23:39:00.000-07:00

Here is the first narrative painting I've done in recent history. It's fun to create a little scene from my imagination and then discover if it has a hidden message or subtle meaning within the setting. My characters are usually small (mostly children and pets) and the format is small (8" x 10" or 9" x 12") so I call these paintings Petite Narratives. The titles give a clue to what I think they may be all about.

"Half Full or Half Empty" copyright 2008 Barbara Levine

Jewish Community

2008-06-26T23:21:00.000-07:00

Abandoning a good habit is not easy to undo, especially one that is as tentative and newly formed as my art journal blog. I stopping blogging when I was away on a couple of trips and once I returned, I could not get myself to start writing on the computer again. Hopefully I'm back now, at least for a couple of days until my family vacation begins in Lake Placid, New York.

Tonight I want to present some of my artwork based on the theme of Jewish Community. My original motivation for these two pieces was the need for Bar and Bat Mitzvah cards. I felt I was always running to the store for cards and rarely finding one I liked, so I decided to design my own and have a supply on hand. I've always appreciated the art deco designed posters and tiles from the 20's and 30's and so decided to use a variation of this style as inspiration. My goal was to simplify the forms and use flat planes of color in harmonious hues. I couldn't resist adding a little texture as well. I'm pretty happy with the results and hope to do more. Right now I working on a Tu B'Shevat (New Year for Trees) design from a drawing I've had in my sketchbook for ten years.

Included with these designs are two of my favorite passages from Jewish prayer books. The front of the cards have abbreviated versions in Hebrew and the backs have an extended version in English. The passages are "Holy, holy, holy, the whole earth is filled with God's glory" and "It is a Tree of Life, it's ways are ways of pleasantness, and all it's paths are peace."

"Tree of Life" copyright Barbara Levine 2008
"Sacred Blossoms" copyright Barbara Levine 2008

Earthly Madonna

2008-05-26T22:43:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite themes in art (and life!) is that of mother and child. I loved being a mother of young children, but after my children grew up and left home, I regretfully stopped using this theme as often. I felt my paintings should reflect what is going on in my life at the moment and that sincerity and authenticity were essential in order to create meaningful art.

But, at last, I have been liberated to again paint my first love. Last year my daughter gave birth to her first child and I became a grandmother. It is both a joy to be in this new role and to witness the loving bond between my daughter and her baby. Forest Madonna is the first in a series I plan to paint celebrating maternity and how it unites us with all of nature.

Forest Madonna copyright Barbara Levine 2008

Garden Mandallas

2008-05-23T20:29:00.000-07:00

April Showers Copyright 2006 Hyacinth Copyright 2006

I started painting garden mandallas a couple of years ago to focus on the plants in my garden I thought so beautiful or interesting they deserved to be celebrated in a painting. A mandalla is a radial design that has been used in cultures around the world to express wholeness and connectedness. Based on the shape of a circle and symmetrical in every direction, it is a nearly foolproof way to organize visual elements into a satisfying composition. I often use this as an art lesson for children because it allows everyone to make a successful drawing or painting. I also make collaborative mandallas with friends and family. It's very fun working (playing!) together and a great way to get artistically shy people involved in creating art.

But I digress. Here are a couple of my first garden mandallas, representing spring with water lilies and hyacinth bulbs. Attached in the center of each is a 3-dimensional frog. I couldn't keep them off....they were so at home with these lovely garden specimens.

Introducing New and Continuing Themes

2008-05-22T13:40:00.000-07:00

This week I will post the current themes I'm working on in my studio so that I can start organizing this blog into a format that has some structure. Some subjects have long been a part of my portfolio of artwork, and others are new interests. Here are the titles I have chosen:

Nature Tapestries
Garden Mandallahs
Jewish Community
Petite Narratives
Earthly Madonnas
Floral Arrangements

I introduced myself with three of my Nature Tapestries, "Rosy May", "Winter Harvest", and "Brambles" (May 7, 2008). These paintings are inspired by my daily walks around my home in the beautiful Willamette Valley, Oregon. Since we have four distinct seasons, I am always watching for new wildflowers to appear and observing the slow transformation of the land and trees from one season to the next. My usual path takes me past marshy areas, grassy fields, and a lavender farm, over seasonal and year-around creeks and a couple of hills, and finally through a forest of firs, ferns and maples. I'm so lucky to have such a diverse landscape to enjoy!

"Forest Floor" copyright Barbara Levine 2008

Artwork on Display

2008-05-15T16:42:00.001-07:00

For the month of May, I have eight paintings at the Giustina Gallery in Corvallis as part of the "Diversity in Our Backyard" exhibit. The theme refers to the wide variety of styles and media of artists in this area as well as the diversity in nature found locally. Here are three of my paintings that are included in the show.