Celestial Dancer III - mid-way

When this painting is a little drier, I'll work on the details - though surprisingly if cropped a bit it looks almost finished now. It was not easy to come back to this figure when I have let her sit in storage and my rooms here and in Vancouver unfinished for 5 years. With courage and force of will, I began to complete it. First I tried painting her on an easel, which  perhaps isn't my style in that I probably dance over the work as I am painting. A quick trip out to purchase 2 yards of thick clear plastic at Honest Ed's, the kind for tables in Italian restaurants, would protect my living room floor. I placed it on the floor, with a little prayer that neither my cat nor my dog would inadvertently wander over the painting space, the canvas surface of wet oils, along with a long piece of unused canvas on the side in case of spills, and shone a clamp lamp with a daylight bulb on the area. And then carefully laid the painting flat and wetted it and painted from the tube with fingers and washes with a large thick brush and oh solitary dramatics in an attempt to feel my way into the movement of the dance, her moment of stillness... she is graceful, beautiful, I don't know if that comes across. Hope so!

Celestial Dancer III, 2004-2009, 2'x3', 61x91.5cm, oil on canvas

                                 

Tea Ceremony

Tea Ceremony, 10"x7¾", 25.5x19cm, coloured India inks, pencils on archival unbleached paper.

Earlier versions: ink drawing; mid-way.



Tea Ceremony

The grace in living,
teapot, tea leaves, steeping.
She bends to pour.

When the waters
washed away the homes.
Clotted blood
of his wounds.
Petals floating on dirges.

Yet laughter of lovers,
her heart of memory.
Landscapes of green
move through us.

Comfort of the gentle
and exact tea ceremony.
Love is everything
the great artist sings.

©Brenda Clews, 2009

                                 

Returning to a Celestial Dancer

The background was painted five years ago, and today I determined to finish the painting. Nightfall has come, and no. Perhaps tomorrow. She is one of my Celestial Dancers. Why do I resist her?

My apartment is small; my two children, son, 22, daughter, 18, live with me. That is my dining room table, yes.

We make room for our art, we have to.

                                 

Navigation buttons for website

I've put my website buttons (that I use as a 'signature' in each blog post) in a table ( that you can't see because I gave '0' border to the lines so they are invisible) to see if they line up better at sites that link here. The html I used at the site has the images sit in a nice row, but I notice that places like Facebook put each image on its own line underneath the post. I'm hoping the invisible table solves the problem.

While the spacing between icons isn't quite right, it's close enough, and, if the table works, I can fiddle with that later. Also, probably I need to add another webpage & link - so there is an 'intro' page, and a 'recent paintings' page. So far, I haven't been able to figure out how to arrange the 'intro' page the way I'd like - though I've tried a few things, none of them have worked.

There is much writing that I have yet to add to the site as well - though that'll be embedded with links to unlisted pages in the website here & there.

:-)