Leap of Faith

Leap of Faith

acrylic on canvas

18" x 24"
Sold

Each moment of life holds a small miracle. Some days I forget to appreciate the treasure of existence. Here's to remembering. 

By A Still Pond

acrylic on canvas

18" x 24"
sold

I'm obsessed lately with the intersection of the physical and the spiritual world. That moment when things seen and things sensed merge or collide. 

We'll Be Okay If..

"We'll Be Okay If We Stay In The Tent,

And Other Misconceptions About Life"

acrylic on canvas

22" x 28"

For Adebanji's Journal: Mug Shots

Homeless

4"x 4" ea. acrylic on paper

We comfort ourselves by reliving memories of protection. Something closed must retain our memories, while leaving them their original value as images. Memories of the outside world will never have the same tonality as those of home and, by recalling these memories, we add to our store of dreams; we are never real historians, but always near poets, and our emotion is perhaps nothing but an expression of a poetry that was lost.

-Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Space (1958)

Bachelard contends that our first home is forever imprinted on our soul. It is the place where we feel safe and free to dream.  I think, beyond shelter, home is a condition of feeling loved and secure. Of belonging. At home, true home, the world makes sense.  The act of being uprooted, whether through economic hardship, natural disaster, war, abuse, mental or physical infirmity, sets the stage for anxiety, fear and desperation.

The young married couple above were homeless before being arrested for and convicted of theft. For the next year and a half their home will be the Frederick County Detention Center. I don't know what combination of choice and circumstance led to their current predicament. I do wonder what dreams they may have for the future.

Adebanji, your book is on its way home.

May you all feel loved, and safe to dream.

pax,

Liz

For Dean

Rich is the Heart that finds Love

5" x 7-1/2"

acrylic on watercolor paper

This is my entry in Dean Haven's moleskine journal. We started our journal exchange about a year 1/2 ago, and I only have one more to receive before mine comes home full of beautiful artwork from twelve fellow painters around the globe. Very fun! I feel very lucky to have been able to participate.

Lilies for Vern

acrylic sketch on watercolor paper

8.5" x 11" 

I've always loved day lilies. They're resilient, wild, beautiful,  drought tolerant, and glorious for the short time they're with us.  This is my entry in Vern Schwarz's  journal for The Flying Moleskines journal swap.
 Pax.

Happy Easter, Happy Passover!

Reawakening

24" x 24"

acrylic on board

Happy holiday and happy Spring everyone!

Calendar Girl

 

Very happy to be included in Bach and Associate's 2011 Calendar featuring a dozen artists from the Frederick area including Walt Bartman, Richard Schlecht, Harry Richardson,  Mary Pfister and Colleen Clapp.  I never thought I'd say this, but I'm Miss July!

photography: Harriet Wise

design: Cristy Stup

October Sky for Sheila

7"x7"

acrylic on paper

For Sheila Tajima's journal in the Flying Moleskin's journal swap.

Fall is my favorite season. I love the deepening, more intense colors, the cool snap to the air,  the quickened pace.  Free from summer's humid weight, life feels sharper, clearer, more textured.  Light is lower, shadows longer, richer, and more mysterious. I imagine the trees are relieved to drop the burden of holding up all of those leaves, and sing when they decorate the landscape.

wishing you a bountiful new season...

My Front Porch

mixed media sketch
in moleskine journal

This is my sketch in Irit Bourla's journal for the Flying Moleskins journal swap. Irit's theme is local places, and since I don't go too far afield these days, out the front door seemed handy.  Our home was built in 1920, and has a long covered porch with a swing at one end. When the weather's decent, it's a relatively quiet spot to relax. So relaxing, in fact, that it wasn't until after I'd finished the sketch that I realized I'd done it upside down in the book! Apologies, Irit, but I've cut it out, and glued it in right side up.  Your book's flying to Adebanji tomorrow.

Happy Summer everyone.

The Flying Moleskins: Abstract Dreams

May You Soar

acrylic on paper

nfs

These are two pages for Dana Cooper, whose journal theme is dreams.  My dreams have been elusive lately, like shifting sand. A promise glimpsed of some distant, better future that dissolves when I try to understand its shape and content.  Fragments float, illuminated, forming landscapes both strange and somehow familiar. Echoes of joys remembered and not yet known.

Huge thanks to everyone who left such supportive comments on the show last month. We had a great turn-out despite the heat, and it was a success.   

Group Show This Weekend

I'm excited to be part of a 5-person show this weekend at a friend's historic farm in the Maryland countryside.  The stone walls and barnwood have turned out to be a great setting for the contemporary and abstract work.  I don't have photos of the work in place yet, but took some of the farm earlier this week.  I'm wondering if Jane and her family would notice if I move into the garden house....

 coming down the lane 

view from the garden house

main house and spring house

looking out from the large stone barn

garden house

a few of the local girls

Jane gives instructions to the welcoming committee

Santos...ready!

Mildred.

Please come if you're in the area.

Would love to see you! 

Participating artists: Jane Byron, Colleen Clapp, Liz Holm, C. Edward Ramsburg, Cristy Stup

Flying Moleskin Journal Swap

Megan, Ryan

watercolor in Moleskine journal

nfs

This is for Michelle Burnett.  I was wracking my brain for snapshot or postcard ideas from my past, and became so melancholy looking through old photos, I had to stop. Then I noticed some of the cutest kids I'd ever seen on Michelle's FB page. The apple really doesn't fall far.  

Thanks to Chris Beck for suggesting I break out the watercolors again. I'd forgotten how fun watery washes can be. After the Claybord issues from the last post, it was doubly fun.  Thanks for everyone's comments, advice and commiseration.  (And thanks, Michelle, for having such cute kids!) 

White Rose

"Promise"

24"x 24"

acrylic on Claybord

This is one of 6 florals that I have hanging in a group show at the Delaplaine Visual Arts and Education Center through the end of June.  I'd never worked on Ampersand's Claybord before. Boy, does is soak up some paint.  The brush would be dry before I'd completed a stroke.  I put out a FB plea, and Manon told me she usually seals it first.  Ah ha.  Good to know for future pieces.   

Many thanks to Don Dunsmore for a lovely reference photo.

Flying Moleskins - Camille, Richard and Matisse's Open Window

acrylic on paper

7"x 10 (2-pages)

nfs

For Camille Olsen, who's journal theme is peace.  Must be the tropical heat here in Maryland, because my colors got away from me and turned all lime and melon and banana, and I swear I'm hearing Calypso music. Camille and her husband are standing near a very rough rendition of my favorite Matisse painting. (Yep, more sailboats).  My apologies to the Olsens if I'm not close to a likeness. We haven't met, but rumor has it, both have wicked senses of humor and that they are a colorful and fun-loving pair.

Thanks for all of your comments on the last post.  I appreciate it!

Peace out ;-)

Flying Moleskins - Cat Nap for Angela's journal

Mabel on Deck

S.V. Tamara

Grenada to Norfolk Voyage

acrylic in Moleskine journal

My entry for Angela Elledge's journal for the Flying Moleskin's journal swap. Angela's theme is places. I don't know if it's spring fever or feeling a bit stuck in place or both, but I've had a bad case of wanderlust lately. I started thinking about the places I've felt most content, and realize most of those places involve the sea or companion animals or both.

In the late 90s, lifetimes ago it seems, I helped a friend's mother bring her Alberg 37 from Grenada to Norfolk. We made the trip in one shot, no stops, across the Caribbean and then up the Atlantic. 20 days at sea. It was just the two of us, and sweet Mabel the cat.  During calmer weather Mabel would wedge herself between the air vent and companionway hatch, and doze in the shade. During bad weather, she'd snug in the cabin, and during my 3 hour sleep shifts, she'd bunk with me for company.  Tropical Depression Danny hit us just before it was upgraded to hurricane status.  Gusts to 60 and sustained winds of 45 were a challenge at the helm. The week before we landed the forestay snapped (which holds the mast upright), and we had a thrilling rollercoaster ride down some huge seas while we wrestled the head sail out of the surf and hooked up an emergency forestay.  We also hit the doldrums-- endless days on glassy seas.  The water tanks fouled, we ran out of propane, and blew an oil gasket that needed repairing.  It was one of the best times of my life. Every day was new, and the colors of the sea and sky changed hourly. On calm nights, I'd lie on deck.  Millions of stars above reflected in the water, and it felt like floating through the universe.  When the wind was fair, and we'd make good headway, dolphins would show up and play around the bow wake. Bliss.

I don't know what happened to Mabel after the return trip, but I like to imagine she's living out another of her 9 lives, belly full of fish, dreaming of far-away lands.

a few snaps....

moi.. exhausted and thinner as we 

near Norfolk.

Sunshine and Honest Scrap Awards

Thank you to the following lovely ladies for sending some awards my way. I appreciate it. 

The Sunshine Award:

     Karen Bruson

     Trish Siegel

     Mitzi Easly

     Diana Marshall

     Faith Te

     Anni Lindsey Jones

The Honest Scrap Award:

     Aimee Dingman

Please visit their sites to see some great paintings.  

Wildlife- The Flying Moleskins

acrylic on gessoed paper

ea. panel 5 x 8"

These are my pages in James Parker's journal for the Flying Moleskins project. James' theme is wildlife. We have lots of deer and bunnies in Maryland, and LOTS of snow right now. I found a reference photo from Danish photographer Tanja Askani, who has heart-warming shots of this orphaned deer who befriended a wild rabbit at a refuge center. I love it when nature shows us how to get along.

The colt is one of the wild horses who are sheltered on Assateague Island off the Atlantic coast of Maryland and Virginia. In the summer, some of the horses are herded, and swim to Chincoteague, Virginia for auction. More of the story is on the National Park Service's site. One of my favorite books from childhood is Margeurite Henry's Misty of Chincoteague.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone...snuggle up to someone you love --human or otherwise! ;-)

Seeing Red (redux)

oil on gessoed paper

11" x 15"

Some of you may recognize this young woman from an earlier post from April. I resurrected her this past weekend to get my painting muscles going again. My friend Barbara graciously traded homes with me for a few days...a gift beyond measure as her beautiful home came equipped with a working studio and a gorgeous view of fields and mountains. My home came with Mom, a cat and two active dogs to care for. I spent a weekend painting hats of various shapes and color--black porkpie, blue knit, bright green with orange flower (I'm not kidding). Then I'd wipe it all out. I finally changed the background and her clothing, and returned to this odd headgear that's not too far from April's version. She's almost done. Thanks to Barbara for the much-needed respite, and to friends Pam and Mark for their hospitality on Sunday. Much appreciated!

The Flying Moleskins!

detail, journal cover, acrylic on Rives BFK

A new year, and a new project takes flight. Friend and fellow blogger Dominique Eichi has launched an invitational art journal swap. We're a baker's dozen from the U.S., U.K. and Canada who will be passing our Moleskine (or other) art journals of varying themes to one another each month until everyone has a painting or sketch from everyone else. Please visit the new Flying Moleskins* blog that Dominique has started to track our progress.

Here is my home-made journal pack containing loose sheets (as yet unbound) that is currently in flight to Adebanji Alade in England. My theme is portraits of any sort- people, animals, trees, flowers, houses...well, you get the picture!

* I've learned that the originals were actually mole skins (oh dear) and were spelled without the final 'e' that today's trademarked journals contain.

journal pack front

journal pack, back

Bon Voyage!