Summer fun

My Solo show, 'North by Northwest' is coming up,

My paintings will be on view at Island Gallery in Winslow, WA on Bainbridge Island for the month of August..  The opening is this First Friday, August 2nd from 6 till 8pm.  I've included some of the pieces in this show below:

'New Growth' 18x24" oil and soft pastel, charcoal on board;
Kathleen Faulkner

'South Beach' 12x12" oil pastel on board;
Kathleen Faulkner

'Burrow's Bay' 12x12"  oil pastel on board;
Kathleen Faulkner

'

'Ika Island' 24x18"  oil pastel on board;  Kathleen Faulkner

'Looking East' 16x20" oil pastel on board;  Kathleen Faulkner

'The View' from Above'  24x18" oil pastel
on board;  Kathleen Faulkner

If you are in the area, also stop by the newly opened Bainbridge Island Museum of Art  and see my jewelry as part of the 'First Light' exhibition on view through September, 2013.  It is a beautiful show and a beautiful museum. 

The Meaning of Wood

I have three pieces in the group show, "The Meaning of Wood' at Lower Columbia College in Longview, Washington.  This show runs from July 22nd to August 21st, 2013. 

Some interesting work is in this show and it looks to be quite wonderful.  If you're down in that area I hope you can stop in and see it.  If not, you can view the show here.

You can read the curator's statement here.

'Afterlife' oil and soft pastel, charcoal
on board;  Kathleen Faulkner

'Family Affair' oil and soft pastel, charcoal
on board;  Kathleen Faulkner

'The Wood Poets' oil and soft pastel, charcoal
on board;  Kathleen Faulkner

Ode to the wood

'The Wood Poets' 16x20" oil and soft pastel, charcoal;
Kathleen Faulkner

As for poets

The Earth Poets

Who write small poems

Need help from no man.

Gary Snyder

Turtle Island

Blood is thicker than the mud

'Family Affair' 16x20" oil and soft pastel, charcoal;
Kathleen Faulkner

"All that we did was human,

stupid, easily forgiven,

Not quite right."

                    - Gary Snyder

a little history

'Afterlife' 16x20" oil and soft pastel, charcoal;  Kathleen Faulkner

I did some hiking through the woods at Smoke Farm with my good friend, Scott Schuldt.  Being the Artist in Residence there,  his job was to document the area.  He was drawn to the 'Mother' stumps, as he called them.   I developed a great appreciation for these stumps.

There are currently ten old growth forests in Washington State.

Life is short

Myself with three of my paintings and one sculpture
by Louise Warner;   photo: Susi Watson

I am delighted to now be represented by Simon Mace Gallery  in Port Townsend.  Currently, I have five paintings in the Small Works Show which will run through December.  This show includes work by nine painters and one sculptor and is worth a visit.

During this holiday season and every season please support your local artists and galleries.  

I do believe that art is necessary for life..  food for the soul.  

So, eat up.

'Life is short, and Art long; the crisis fleeting; experience perilous, and decision difficult.'

Hippocrates

One more

'Low Tide'12x12"  oil and soft pastel, charcoal, medium;
Kathleen Faulkner

It rains.  The wind blows and  

we lose our light as the days grow shorter.

It is a good time to make some art.

and another..

'High Tide' 12x12"  oil and soft pastel, charcoal, medium;
Kathleen Faulkner

The big lesson I'm learning this Fall is, yes, everything really does change.  Nothing stays the same.  The only constant Is change.

This can be a hopeful reality.  Maybe things will change for the better.

another marsh picture

'Wiley's Marsh' 12x12" oil and soft pastel, charcoal, medium;
Kathleen Faulkner

My first oil pastel of the fall season.

This piece is part of a series of studies I'm working on before attempting the very large (for me) 3x5'

painting.  

It is very dark but I think like it.  

For Paul Havas

'John's Trees' 17x17" oil and soft pastel, charcoal;  Kathleen Faulkner

About a year or more ago I did a piece titled ' John's Trees'.   

There was a story that went with the work.  The trees were planted by a well known Skagit artist and so I titled it accordingly.  John Simon had recently passed, he was on my mind and I titled it thinking of him..  but he didn't plant those trees.

I did this piece from my memory of the work.  It came out closer than I had expected.  

So, here's to you, Paul.  May you rest in peace.

'Paul's Trees' 17x17"oil and soft pastel, charcoal;  Kathleen Faulkner

Mind's Eye

'Mindscape' oil and soft pastel, charcoal;

Kathleen Faulkner

The Monday after the full moon and weekend craziness abounded.  Plants grew faster and my head still spins. 

What to do to counteract?  Mindscape series continued:  

all I can do is listen   

and draw.  

This came from a place I don't go often 

a place I'd like to get to know, 

a place I will re-visit.

Living in Paradise

'High Water' 17x17" oil and soft pastel, charcoal

It's mid August,  coolest spring and summer I remember.  This morning offers a glimpse of fall.

The rest of the country is wilted from high temperatures and no rain and some say that eventually 'environmental refugees' will migrate here because we still have an abundance of water and reasonable temperatures. 

The weather forecast is for rain yet I watch as the neighbor water his perfectly green lawn and wish for that water.   I am very careful with my allotment.  I have rain barrels that water my garden and we all know I don't water my 'lawn'.  I pay attention to every drop.  I imagine the  future possibilities.

In the town where I live the city council is pushing through a bottled water plant.  When I ask why they say, "It'll bring jobs."  

Someday we may dream of the old days, the days of water abundance and wish we had taken better care.

Weather forecast

'Weather Series'  12x12" each, oil and soft pastel, charcoal; Kathleen Faulkner

Here in the Northwest, there's something about heavy weather that, although it can be hard to live with, has a bit of a comforting effect.  It is what we know.  It is a factor of our being.

Anniversary

'Slough' 7x9" oil and soft pastel, charcoal; Kathleen Faulkner

I started this blog one year ago today.  

The plan was to have an alternative to a website. What happened is that it took on a life of it's own leading me down some other paths.

I made a conscious effort to keep personal business out of it.  That didn't work.  I had planned to concentrate on calls to artists, show reviews and showcasing my work.  That didn't happen except that I have showcased my work.

What I discovered is that I enjoy telling the stories that inspire the artwork:  the full picture, so to speak.  I also discovered that if I just go with the flow it will go wherever it goes and that's ok.

One great benefit to me has been the feedback.  It is good to know that someone is out there.  One never knows who or what awaits once the publish button is pushed and the post is thrown into cyberspace.
It is also good discipline.

Now,  just for fun, here are some statistics from this last year:

'Solstice: full moon lunar eclipse' was the most viewed post.  'in addition' was a close second.  

Besides the US, Canada and Germany gave me the most hits.  

'Neckpieces' and 'Water' were the most visited pages.  

Monday has the highest viewing numbers with the most hits between 10am and 2pm.  

The image from 'A Fairy Tale' was included in Regina Hackett's blog post,  'Foot Fetish'.   

My blog was listed in two international jewelry blogs and dumped from one painting blog.  

All in all I'd say it was a good year.  

So, here's to another year of story telling and art making.  

Thanks for viewing. 

Cheers!

A man is but the product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes.
Mohandas Gandhi 

Solstice: full moon lunar eclipse

'Nightscape' 12x12" oil and soft pastel, charcoal;
Kathleen Faulkner

Winter Solstice:
Out of the darkness  we move toward the light

This 'holiday' really works for me.  Just knowing that we will now be moving away from the darkest hour gives me hope and brightens dark places.

This year, there is a full moon lunar eclipse during the Solstice, an event that we have never seen in our lifetime and will never see again.  A once in a lifetime opportunity to make it anything we want and a chance to move forward with a little help from the Universe.  That puts a smile on my face.

Happy Solstice, Friends!  May we move forward with love and peace and inspiration,  Cheers!

The Winter of it

'The Winter of It' oil and soft pastel, charcoal; 8x8"
Kathleen Faulkner

It is the Winter of it.  Darkness, rain  and the mentally ill.  

I think about a painting I did.  Title:  'It's Good to Have a Running Start'.
It is hard to have a running start in the Winter of it.  Friends are falling and Life is challenging.  I'm giving things away.  It helps.

It will soon be the Solstice.  Then, the days will grow longer and we will move toward Spring,  the favored season.  Then we shall all carry on.

'The Winter of It III' oil and soft pastel, charcoal; 8x8"
Kathleen Faulkner

The story I told the tree

'False Pass'  oil and soft pastel, charcoal;
Kathleen Faulkner

There are several garbage islands out in the oceans. These are huge masses of plastic where nothing lives except previously owned stuff, re-morphed into garbage that will last forever and that the fish and birds and animals eat because it looks like food.

It's all made from oil and contributes to our potential doom.

Of course, there are other ingredients in the doom recipe: global warming, pesticides, radiation, clear cutting and the destruction of whole ecosystems to feed humans' need for stuff.   There are many more, too many to mention.

Everyone that has something to sell hopes that someone will buy it.  I am an artist.  I create work because  it fulfills me and it supports me.  It's still stuff.  I often have conflicts about it all.  We all contribute to the doom recipe but less really is more and, as much as I can justify Art as a quality of life necessity, it still requires materials, some more destructive than others, to make it.  I wonder if I have any right to feel that what I do is worthwhile.  Maybe I'm just using resources for my own selfishness. 

Recently a friend read this story to me:  Global Warming and Art

It changed my perspective a bit and eased the angst.