Sacred Spaces

"Sacred Spaces", 9x12". oil on gallery wrap canvas

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"A painter shows me what he painted, 
but an artist shows me why she painted."

—Clint Watson

Here is a little slice of sacred space in our home. What's sacred about it? It's right smack dab at the heart of our home, and the first thing to grab your eye as you enter the front door. It's a part of our living space full of chairs and couches where family and friends gather to share.

Our most recent stray, sits perched atop my grandmother's wooden trunk ready to pounce on our unsuspecting chihuahua. We have used this trunk for years to store childhood Halloween costumes, grandma's once beautiful silk gown, boa and lacy robe, dance recital costumes, pom-poms and cheerleading uniforms, pirate swords, ruby slippers, princess crowns and fairy wings. It's a treasure chest sure to produce screams of delight and excitement for bored grandchildren on rainy days. 

Nothing in our small 70s home matches, nor is it fancy, or expensive, but rather an eclectic collection of hand-me-downs from parents and grandparents. Pieces of furniture wounded over the many years with scars, scratches and nicks, yet somehow healed and made whole by the memories they bear. 

I loved painting the natural light—creeping in like fog through the north facing paned windows of the french door—silently sweeping across oak floors buffed in chalky reflections of cool morning light. 

The key role here is played by the little table lamp casting rays of luminous warm light from the focal point of the painting; a beacon to all who stop by for a visit, perhaps to share in a glass of wine, and bask in the rich abundance of our humble abode. 

Thanks for stopping by,
nancy

To see more of my art click here, or one one of these additional links: Online Gallery • Email  • Website  •  Graphic Design Studio • Saatchi Gallery • Fine Art America

Just a Chair on a Porch

"Just a Chair on a Porch"
14x11" Oil on 1.5" gallery wrap canvas

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"The art of art, the glory of expression and the sunshine of the light of letters, is simplicity." —Walt Whitman

Stripped down to the barest necessities for guaranteed joy and contentment, give me a front porch with a chair to sit in silence and greet a neighborly morning knocking at my door. 

Coffee cupped in hand...sliver of melting moon fading...first chirps of the winged, chanting praise...cool stir of wind caressing cheeks...last stand of shrinking shadow...sunburst on the horizon, duck the first warm hurls of orange and gold rays. Morning has broken!

Photographers: Moira Fitzgerald & Yann Meersseman

The reference shown for my painting was another amazing image found on Vintage Colors blog. I was totally swept into the quiet stillness captured by the simplicity of the morning scene. However, as you can see, I went to town taking huge liberties with pumped up colors and values pulled from my imagination to match the intensity of the light and serenity that infused me. 

In this latest piece, I decided to challenge myself by taking a different approach. I usually try to match the same colors and values to what I see, but this time my goal was to try punching up the warmth and coolness of the light and hues for added mood and mystery. I have been working on this one for some time and hit many dead ends along the way. I had to wipe my canvas off many times and start over until I began seeing on my canvas what I was feeling about the image, rather than what I was simply seeing. 

For me painting is a war, a battle of push and pull, trial and error to the very end. I now stand with white flag in hand...a truce declared. I am at peace...and just wish I could plop into that inviting chair. 

Thanks for the visit,
—nancy

To see more of my art click here, or one one of these additional links: Online Gallery • Email  • Website  •  Graphic Design Studio • Saatchi Gallery • Fine Art America

Silent Sentinel

"Silent Sentinel" 10x8" oil on gessobord

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"You study, you learn, but you guard the original naivete. It has to be within you, as desire for drink is within the drunkard or love is within the lover."  — Henri Matisse

What more can I say about the beauty of a cat, sitting idle, alongside an empty chair. The cat longing and waiting for just the right moment to jump into the empty lap. The chair sits longing for the cat to nestle in for a morning nap and the inevitable sharpening of claws sure to fray and tear. Two strangers yearning, yet afraid to leap, like two sentinels waiting for the dawn, or a nudge to awaken from the trance. 

To quote from a passage of The Goldfinch by Pulitzer Prize winning novelist, Donna Tartt, "And just as music is the space between notes, just as the stars are beautiful because of the space between them, just as the sun strikes raindrops at a certain angle and throws a prism of color across the sky--so the space where I exist, and want to keep existing, and to be quite frank I hope I die in, is exactly this middle distance: where despair struck pure otherness and created something sublime."
 

Thanks for watching.

nancy

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To see more of my art or to contact me: Online Gallery  • E-mail  •  Website  •  Graphic Design Studio •  Saatchi Gallery •  Fine Art America

Seat of Knowledge

"Seat of Knowledge" 20x16" Oil on Canvas

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 "Knowledge is knowing we cannot know." 

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

This wing back chair sits vacant in the north facing window of my studio. It was a rescue from a friend of my daughter's whose cat had taken a liking to it. 

To me, this chair is the semblance of the Tree of Knowledge growing smack dab in the middle of the Garden of Eden, tempting all who come upon it to eat of its forbidden fruit. The shiny, sweet-talking tangerine, balancing precariously on a limb is the brightest allure in this lush garden.

Can you imagine sitting shamelessly idle, sipping on a cup of jasmine tea, and delving into the hidden secrets of a half finished book in the middle of a quiet afternoon? Seeing this chair empty, makes me wonder if its latest occupant was cast out of paradise mid bite after partaking of...heaven forbid...leisure time?!? Wonder what that feels like? Guess I'll never know. It all comes down to living your passion. Are you living yours?
 

nancy

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Call of the Light

"Call of the Light", 20x16, oil on gessobord

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"All men's miseries derive from not being able to sit in a quiet room alone." —Blaise Pascal

This large painting is of the wing back chair that sits in the corner of my mom's living room where I snapped the photo reference. 

Caught in a yin-yang sea of cool and warm light, the chair sits vacant and still, like an empty canoe at dawn, docked against a back lit window that laps cool waves of early morning light against its sides. In a battle for dominance and balance, the table lamp to the right, casts its baited hooks of warm golden highlights designed to lure and reel you in for the catch.  

This seat beckons, kick off your shoes and sit right down. Simply be and listen for a quiet moment, not with the mind but with ears of the heart. 

This tiny minnow-of-a-habit built into each day reaps a bounty you'll never throw back. 

Thanks for bobbing by today!

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To see more of my art or to contact me: Online Gallery  • E-mail  •  Website  •  Graphic Design Studio •  Saatchi Gallery •  Fine Art America

Window Seat

"Window Seat", 10x8", oil on gessobord

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"What you really want for yourself is always trying to break through just as a cooling breeze flows through an open window on a hot day. Your part is to open the windows of your mind."

—Vernon Howard

The other day a friend asked what was up with all the chairs I've been painting recently? To be honest I am not sure what motivates my fascination? However as I reflect on the question, I have to admit I've been as moved by the illuminated windows serving as backdrops in my paintings, as I have been by the silhouetted chairs themselves. 

The yin-yang of light and dark enchants me with the omnipresence of shadowy darkness stalking ever so close, lurking on the prowl; while parallel worlds of redeeming windows stream with the brilliance of life-saving portals, open invitations for light and color to enter pregnant with the hope of possibility.

I don't know why I feel compelled to paint chairs, but those flanked with wide outstretched stuffed arms, sure seem to long to surround with the warmth of a soft embrace, offering safety and protection. To coin a phrase from Goldilock, "Ahhh, this chair is just right."

Thanks for flowing in through my window. 

nancy 

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To see more of my art or to contact me: Online Gallery  • E-mail  •  Website  •  Graphic Design Studio •  Saatchi Gallery •  Fine Art America

The Rocker

"The Rocker" 10x8", oil on gessobord

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"A house that does not have one warm, comfy chair in it is soulless."  — May Sarton

A silhouette of solitude sits in soft sultry light, inviting the viewer to enter into this room and take a seat by the french doors overlooking the pool; perhaps to rest awhile, read a book, or simply sit amid elongated ghostly shadows and rock in early morning's light.

This rocking chair has been in our family for as long as I can remember and beyond. I know all eight of my siblings and I were all rocked and comforted to sleep in it, just as I soothed my own children, and then one-by-one each grandbaby. 

The time-weathered cherry with its now tattered cane seat, groans with each rhythmic motion, lulling little eyes to sleep like some entrancing mantra. Accompanying lullabies were gently sung from the armless frame, such as Rock-a-bye baby, You are my sunshine, even an original Go to sleep my little baby—composed by my grandfather—and passed down from one tender lap to the next from its seat.

  

To me this chair is a priceless heirloom, one that continues to uplift this now grown child in a treasury of memories and tradition. 

I don't think I have ever said this before about one of my paintings, but I really LOVE the way this painting turned out...and the emotion it invokes. There is such a feeling of satisfaction when a painting comes together and I can step back and say YES that's it!

Thanks for letting me introduce our family's rocker.

nancy

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To see more of my art or to contact me: Daily Paintworks Gallery  • E-mail  •  Website  •  Graphic Design Studio •  Saatchi Gallery 

Darkness or Light?

"Darkness or Light?", 10x8" oil on gessobord

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"A table, a chair, a bowl of fruit and a violin; what else does a man need to be happy?"—Albert Einstein

Taking the positive view, today the quiet morning light reflected onto my wooden living room floors creating shadowy markings as precise as the painted lane markers on the freeway. I will even go so far as to say, one of my ladder back chairs has jumped in to play a round of hopscotch? 

However from the opposing viewpoint, it could also seem that this unoccupied, desolate straight back was trapped, worthless, isolated, even trapped in the darkness behind bars. 

Which is it? The same scene with two opposing perspectives. Which slant resonates with you? Is the light overcoming darkness here, or do you see darkness overcoming the light? While I see stillness, quiet, and inner solitude; another might see emptiness, abandonment or even purposelessness. Life is what we bring to it...what we are looking for always finds us.

Thanks for playing along on this beautiful morning.
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SOLD - Room Service

"Room Service" 8x8" oil on gessobord

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"All of life is an empty room. It is our task to fill it with something worth listening to." 

— Joan Chittister

As Shakesphere said, "All the world is a stage"... and this empty chair is merely a player. A stoic prop, positioned slightly off-center stage, sits transfixed in the warm flood of first light pouring in through glass and splashing across the floor. 

This painting is of another corner of the hotel room where I recently stayed in Fort Worth. This delightful room serviced me well, an unspoken invitation to pause in the solitude of the great abyss. Or at least, that's how I perceived it. 

I've mentioned in previous blogs about my need for silence, and how important it is to my soul. I suspect this might have something to do with the fact that the TV broadcasts day and night at my house, especially during football season. I rarely ever sit down to watch it myself cause nine times out of ten, I'll be asleep within a matter of minutes. My need for quietude really is very productive because it spurns me to retreat to another room of service—my studio—where I can listen and paint to my hearts content in the utter soundlessness of "Do Not Disturb."

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To see more of my art or to contact me: Online Gallery  • E-mail  •  Website  • Graphic Design Studio 

Austin Workshop Day 2

"The Lobby" after Colley Whisson, 12x16" oil on Ampersand gessobord

On Day 2 of the Colley Whisson Workshop, we again painted from Colley's painting. This time a larger panel of an interior shot from the inside of an old hotel lobby in Australia.

Step-by-step, Colley demonstrated each of the three alla prima layers, pausing in between for us to complete each step on our own canvas. Then he would come around and help us individually correcting as needed.  

Copying is a great tool to help step out of your box, go inside the artist's head, and understand his process. This forces you to leave your comfort zone and explore new approaches. 

Hope you enjoy the painting as much as I did painting it!

nancy
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My Little Corner of the World

"My Corner of the World", 6x6" Oil on Gessobord

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  " Light is the first of painters. There is no object so foul that intense light will not make it beautiful."                  

 — Ralph Waldo Emerson

Time for  a coffee break! You deserve it. 

 
Step right in and have a seat. Welcome to one of the cozy little corners in my world. The big blue hand-me-down stuffed chair is calling you to stop whatever you’re doing, to pause for a moment and relax in quiet mindfulness.

Arlo Guthrie said, "You can't have a light without a dark to stick it in." Can you feel the morning light as it breaks through the slats of wooden blinds to warm your heart right where you sit?  Like a rooster waving sticks of soft yellow pastels, the sun breaks in —without the need of a key—to illuminate this sleepy corner of my family room every sunny morning. I love the play of light on the walls and wood floors, but especially the striped pattern it creates on my red pillow.
 

Would you care for coffee or tea? It’s moments like this that souls thirst for.

nancy

© 2013 nancy parsons

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