Interiors, Taming the Wilderness Within

I am gathering ideas. Entertaining a new direction. Not ready to dive in just yet--just putting some tentative toes in the water...

Creative ideas and impulses percolate everywhere, mostly where and when I do not expect, so I try to keep my whole person open in order to collect them. I follow some, but never completely ignore the others. For roughly the last 15 years I've been painting botanically inspired images, fantastical landscapes, and scenes revealing a bit of subterranean earth--inexhaustible subject matter really, which challenges my painting skill while allowing my oeuvre to continue to evolve. Mostly this is true--and stimulating enough to keep me satisfied and growing artistically. Yet, I am increasingly drawn to subject matter not at all related to the out-of-doors: interiors, in particular, and in the traditional sense. I love Vuillard's interiors especially, and Balthus's of course, but it's been many years since I have painted a true interior scene.

This was, I think, my last true interior painting, 1985

Saturday, oil on canvas, 36x48", 1985, Valerie Fowler

 So, for now, I am cataloging subject matter, hoping to connect some dots in my own mind until I recognize my role. Scenes, venues, settings, already important in my out-of-door subject matter, are becoming contained, controlled and hemmed in.

Marathon Texas,  2012, Valerie Fowler

Marathon, Texas, Formal Living Room Chair, pencil on paper, 2012, Valerie Fowler

Balthus, The Living Room, 1942, more on this picture here

Ramona After Balthus, oil on canvas, 35x54", 2009, Valerie Fowler.
My first and only attempt at homage to one of my all time hero painters.

Marathon Texas Living Room, 2012, Valerie Fowler

Vuillard's preparatory photo of the Bloch family sitting room, 1927

 Vuillard Bloch Portrait, 1927-29

Not sure where this will lead or what it says about my mental state, after all, the interior scenes to which I am most attracted are usually dark, claustrophobic, and quite eery. I must own what is mine.

Meanwhile, Happy Holidays. 

May your interiors be most merry, sweetly cozy and never completely tame.

Busy Busy Busy

I have been so, busy, busy, busy, and now, finally, I'd like to share some of the results of some of that work.  Here are a few links to the shows in which I will be participating and some preview images from each of the venues. I have never participated in so many art events at once. It's a new feeling--happy and energizing. So yeah, I'm feeling O.K. about throwing out there a little self promotion. Here's the (not so) skinny:

E.A.S.T.(for maps and complete EAST information>> East Austin Studio Tour)
     
 Agaveprint --A group show, fine art prints, here's one sample, below.

The Deeper You Go, The Richer it Gets, oil on canvas, 42x28", 2012

Austin Art Connections-Small Works, Pump Project Art Complex
 A group show of mainly small pieces one of which is shown below.

Landscape for Looking, hand colored original print with mixed media collage, 16x20", 2012

Log Jam --East Austin Studio Tour Hub/group show, I'll have this older piece, below, on view.

My Left Hand, oil on maple panel, 8x10", 2006

Grassroots --Austin Bergstrom International Airport, East Airside Gallery, Below is one of two of my paintings on view, concourse level, near gate 8. I love our airport.

Negotiating Safe Passage, oil on canvas, 36x36", 2008

East Side Glass/Boom Gallery --new gallery adjacent to this fantastic glass blowing studio. It's a group show mixed with fine art glass. Here, below, is one painting I'll be showing.

Pecan Tree Portal, Rio Frio, Texas, oil on canvas, 44x37", 2012

Also, these venues, on the west side of town:
     The Continental Club Gallery, "Dear John...", on view until December 1st in the upstairs gallery, open nightly at 8pm. This is an old piece, below, which seemed appropriate for the show's theme.

His and Her Palm Fronds, oil on maple panel, 12x16", 2005

The Austin Wine Merchant --My favorite wine shop. Event scheduled for November 28th. One night only fundraiser for The Be An Artist Program, an arts in education program run by local musician, Darden Smith. More details forthcoming...

      Plus, on going--at Austin City Hall--The People's Gallery until February 2013, one of two of my pieces on view, below. Third floor of our excellent City Hall.

Rio Frio, Opening Earth, oil on canvas, 12x36", 2011

So come on out and see some art--mine yes--but also, a city-full of amazing art. This town is crawling with artists, as always, but this month we are organized nicely into literally hundreds of terrific shows. Use the EAST maps to divine your way to infinite treasure. Meanwhile I'll work some more...

Earth Has a Long Memory

This post is a continuing pictorial saga from my last post from September 29


Today is my 51st birthday. On this day I want to say: I am grateful for daily painting. I am grateful for every day it is possible in my life. Every day I learn more, every day the scope of my subject is larger and more intimate at the same time. Daily painting isn't practical, it doesn't pay well, sometimes nothing at all, but for now I thank my husband and family and just do it anyway because for now, I can.
I hope to have this painting completed by November 1st, ready for E.A.S.T., but I don't yet know what finished will look like. And that, to me, is pretty exciting.

A long way from finished but it knows what it wants.

details, added some blue to sky, and yellow and red

second, or 4th coat of reds

lime green grass, fine tuning as I go

Please stay tuned...

Dedicated to the Lost Pines of Bastrop County

  I LOVE to paint large. On the first day my kids went back to school this fall I stretched and gessoed the largest stretcher I had and set to work. I had recently driven to Houston through Bastrop County and on that late August day the burnt sticks which had once been an extravagant forest--the Lost Pines area--spoke to me more than they had before. I have seen the results of last year's record fires several times before, in pictures and in real life, but on that day the sky was dark with purple clouds and the recent rains had produced lime green new grass which made the black of the burnt pines look velvety rich, and the soil, which is typically a ruddy red, look incredibly orange. And as I passed by in my van, late for my Houston date, I saw one tree which still had it's branches--but with scarlet red foliage, probably a dying tree. When I returned home I immediately drew up a sketch before my memory faded. On the day I mapped the painting out in oil the local radio station I usually listen to had special programing, interviewing victims of the fires, each telling their very dramatic and heartbreaking stories--it was the one year anniversary of the historic fires. I immersed myself in the sounds of their voices and painted. This is the chronology of the painting.

This might be the halfway point, halfway to completion. I won't know for sure until it's done and I can look back, but I know this is the point where I glimpse infinity. Every part of the painting needs attention and detail which could go on and on and on. The job now is to decide how much detail, and where, and if those details actually serve the painting.

detail

Earth has a Long Memory, as of 9/29/12

Please stay tuned....

"Evil Don't Look Like Anything"

Negotiating Safe Passage, 36x36", oil on canvas, 2007

 Last night at dinner Ramona brought up the idea of inherited guilt. She was writing an essay for school. She, in all her youth and innocence, was wondering at the idea of original sin or inherited sin. Brian and I brought up the idea of collective guilt and collective consciousness using slavery as an example here in the states and we also brought up Nazi Germany. She wasn't having it. Why should anyone feel guilty for what they didn't actually do? We talked about the guilt we feel about the advantages we've had because we are white, our parents are white---about the positive projections of advancement, expectations of success, we've inherited. These things were hard to pin down with examples....Brian talked about the economic advantage the early United Stated enjoyed because a large amount of our industry---agriculture particularly, was built with the free labor of slavery--wealth built on slavery, not freedom. And how a parent's advantages and limits are potentially passed on to their kids. 

 All this got me to thinking about guilt, temptations, purity of good and purity of evil. I don't happen to believe that there is such a thing as pure evil or pure goodness. I believe it's far more interesting than that. I try to go good things, strive to be kind, but I am fascinated with evil. And experience in life has taught me that that struggle is where wisdom is gained. So in my work as an artist I use the allegory of nature to show the ambiguity of beauty in humankind. There is, always, in my pieces, an element of sadness and wonder, at the beauty of things both evil and good. Nature is a formidable force of goodness in life. It can also be horribly destructive and destroy lives. One should never turn their back on nature. Keep it close and watch it. But remember, "evil don't look like anything."

Evil is an act.

Here's one of my first, favorite, Okkervil River songs...It really says it better than I can.

 

No Wonder I'm Nuts, or, What I Did This Summer

I've been beating myself up a bit about not producing much work this summer, and not getting a chance to take my regular bike rides, always busy, though, always thinking.

Today, I realized, I have been doing A LOT but it's all sort of new and all unfinished, and, most significantly, it's untested work and so, it feels shaky, insecure, anxiety ridden. Today I realized that's just as it should be. It mirrors my life exactly, and that's OK also.

I've been teaching 4 mornings a week, 2 hour classes, every week this whole summer and you'd think that would leave me plenty of time to get my other work done, but I've felt so scattered. I normally take some time off in the summer, break from teaching, renew my creative lifeline. This year finances are tight, so not only was there no vacation get away to make me all new again, but I decided to take on more students--open all my weekdays up. And I'm so happy to have had the opportunity. I've really enjoyed the teaching and have in fact honed my teaching skills and enjoyed these young people so much. BUT, my creative self needs rejuvenation and I have been wishing for an outlet, or even the concentrated time necessary in my studio to really get into my work. I started to look at all the pieces I've been working on all summer. When I slowed down enough to take stock, I realized that I've been working on a lot of different projects. They are all so varied, so much so, that it feels like my ideas are ricocheting about my studio in a really confusing fashion. So, I did what I usually do when life overwhelms me, I made a list--but in this case I documented it with pictures.

Here are some of my soon to be completed projects:

Work in progress, print of original ink drawing, mixed media and collage added.

 Dog Day Bugs, Cicadas, for examination, collected lovingly and given freely, to me...Thanks Juliee!

preliminary drawings

enlarged and exaggerated...

Dog Day Bug, ink on claybord, beginning--loving working with liquid ink, sennelier's shiny shellac version.

Dog Day Bug, changing, hmmm, we'll see

Wall of ideas and recent sketches

Sycamore tree parts, things Felix brought to me when he was little, I had saved them in a paper bag, found them the other day....sweet.

One of my studio chairs. Chairs are one of my favorite things to draw. They all seem to suggest the people in the room, past, present, future.

Indian Paintbrush, ink and watercolor

Sorry the photo's a little blurry...ugh, Bird's Nest, oil on maple panel, for  my friend and fellow artist Matt Lynaugh, almost done.

My Problem in Yellow, maybe it's finally done. A 2-D set of worry beads.

My next painting. I already know what I'm going to paint--what it's about, and all, I just have to sand and bleach the stretcher because it has some mildew damage--boring details.

AND, I have an idea I've been stewing on for a while--for an art destination, here in Austin. I just need about 4 million, DOLLARS, so it's crazy, but I can't get it out of my mind and it keeps getting more real the more I think about it. The idea is so great and beautiful, isn't that enough?