Beyond Place Exhibition

Window at Elevation Gallery, Canmore, AB

Window at Elevation Gallery, Canmore, AB

“Beyond Place”, my solo exhibition for 2013 opened on June 1st at Elevation Gallery in Canmore, Alberta. After approximately a year of living intimately with the paintings and watching them develop in a rather poorly lit and relatively small studio, it was exhilarating to see them hanging on clean, white walls with excellent lighting. The effect, for me, was breathtaking. I had worked hard and that moment was the pay off.

The opening was a truly up-beat occasion,  well attended by family, friends, art lovers, browsers and buyers. There was good conversation, great food and wine and a pervading atmosphere of celebration  The guests were greeted warmly and were offered wine, nibbles, and information by the gallery attendants,  Phil, Jackie and Don who did a wonderful job. Cheryl, the gallery owner made it all possible and oversaw the hanging but unfortunately was unable to attend. The response to my work was very positive and congratulatory. It couldn’t have been a nicer opening. Thanks to all who attended.

Of course, now that it is over I’m taking a little break but soon will return to my studio to start preparing some canvases for painting. Que vida!

Entering the exhibit

Entering the exhibit

favorite pieces

favorite pieces

guests

guests

guests

guests

guests

guests

the artist

the artist

 

Inspiration I

Just sitting comfortably at my computer after a frustrating battle with the internet connection. That battle isn’t over but at least I can access my website to begin yet another challenge with updating. Needless to say I am far from a computer whiz kid. So…what about the title of this blog post. Niggling problems and frustrations don’t usually provide inspiration for creative work….or maybe, their inspiration is indirect. After a particularly nasty encounter with the mundane I’m drawn to my studio like a iron filing is drawn to a magnet. Once there, the air and my mind seems clearer, enabling the flow of that slow-moving river of imagination, vision, and memory which cause the paint to flow onto the canvas.

Cryptic

passage

Release the reins of preconception

Open eyes to every mark

Step through the veil to silence

Regard the mystery’s heart

Contemplate the cryptic image

Ma Ganga descends the heights

The mind a moonflower

Radiant on full moon nights

Light snagged on its surface

By the glowing sun

On a slow- moving river

Even sky will waltz

And trees will sprout

From the watery depths

Bubbling springs of endless paths

Wind to the horizon

And snake to the heavens

Flowing and glowing

Behind closed eyes

Reflections upon reflections

Choose the journey

Inward or out

Memory and imagining

Entwining in spirals

Past or future

Residing in now

Scratch the surface

To reveal what’s hidden

Or rub till it’s warm

If  you believe in fate

Will the truth be revealed

Or in emptiness found

When brush moves paint

 

 

Reenchantment of the River

Walking by the river

I pause as the din of otherness and angst

Dissipates into the spaces between existence.

Stillness and clarity infuse the air

Till my breath slows

To the river flowing ceaselessly

Reaching to timelessness

Circling through history

Carrying memory, myth and metaphor

Imaginations reality.

Submerging hands I cup the mystery

And awaken to tributaries moving beneath skin

Etching paths of light

Mapping the universe

Pulsing at fingertips with primordial rhythm.

Transparent gold and memory fragments

Coalesce into pools of luminiscent amber

Layer upon layer

Brush caresses canvas

And the river dons a veil of reenchantment.