Introducing New work!!

Hi Everyone.  Hopefully the art I'm about to share with you will compensate for the delinquent entries in the last few weeks.  I've been designing a new art website and it's playfully consumed all of my time.  Moving on...I introduced you to Corbett Leith, an amazing abstract artist, in one of my earlier entries and I'm introducing his new work and new web site to you again today.  His work is not to be missed so Kick back, relax and take just a minute to enjoy his inspiring work at http://www.corbettbleith.com    

When you're done, this spiral drawing video is a taste of a few drawings  you'll find at http://www.petersengallery.com  

Enjoy!!  

  music by Doc Watson

New chapter

Summer.  The season we wait for every year and others chase  around the globe.  Beautiful places, beautiful people...and summer brings all it's fun and memories to keep us going... 'til the next time. There's been mention of the painful sadness of summer ending among my friends who are educators, trying to slowly shift gears between rest and racing. Before it passes I suggested we gather some photos of friends and family to mark the end of one chapter and the beginning of another.  Sometimes it helps to let one season go and allow the next to begin and avoid the clinging to wanting more of the past.  Clear the energy, clear the mind, and open up to what's about to happen.   Gather a few photos of friends and family and take a moment to say thank you for what has been and all that still awaits you.

Featuring Colette Crutcher, Mosaic artist

Among the many inspiring murals throughout San Francisco, Tonantzin Renace is not to be missed.  This sensational mosaic relief mural of  the fiery red Lady , unparalleled anywhere in the city, can be seen at 3495 16th St. and Sanchez.  Colette Crutcher lives and works in San Francisco, creating several mosaic masterpieces around the city including this incredible Mayan Quetzalcoatl ( seen above) sculpture located in the Mission district at 24th St. and York. One of her latest feats is the astounding community steps project located at 16th Avenue and Moraga in the Sunset district.  Aileen Barr, also a local artist who creates her own tiles, shared her skills with Colette to help create the hand made tiles and worked with Colette to design the steps.  With Aileen's ceramic knowledge and Colette's mosaic experience, the two artists work were wed.  Jessie Audette and Alice Yee Xavier are responsible for proposing the idea and helped organize the project. Together, everyone raised enough money, $120,000, to create and complete the 163 steps mosaic design.  (left image just below)

WOW!!!

I previously had the privilege of living in the same neighborhood as Colette and could visit her Lion, Wise and Furry, at whim.  We can see more of Colette's incredible work on her website at www.colettecrutcher.com.  You can also purchase a book about the 163 steps recently completed in the city to support their work and cover the cost of the publishing.   Also noted and not to be missed here is the detailed relief sculpture created by her artist husband, Mark Roller ( circular relief seen below). The two have worked on several projects together, most easily seen on the Quetzalcoatl sculpture mentioned earlier.

          

Finally, to learn more about the murals of San Francisco, visit www.cityhikes.com.  OR   www.precitaeyes.org.

Nature

Among the amazing, magical formations that nature reveals to us every day, there are always some exceptions that defy any sort of explanation.  Like this tree growth I encountered while hiking the Dipsea trail in Marin, CA.... 

I never cease to be amazed at the endless creativity around me.  Please post your most amazing experience in nature and remember... keep your eyes peeled.

recent drawings and paintings

Please post your thoughts...

Spirals

You will see spirals everywhere if you look very closely.  I see spirals in every day life all the time.  Raining, dreaming, walking, sunshine, they are everywhere.

Nature creates the most amazing examples every day if we take the time to look.

The Fibonacci sequence ( spiral created by a specific, mathematical growth pattern found in nature) and the Golden mean have been 

studied by artists, mathematicians, and scientists alike who have been fascinated with it's nature for thousands of years.

Renaissance artists applied the Golden mean when creating the perfect composition.  The images here are examples of architecture, pottery, jewelry, photography as well as some of my paintings, and drawings inspired by nature's spiral.

Where do you see spirals?

color shifting

While back East visiting my family, we all decided to go for a walk and find a new place to eat.  Stonington borough is a beautiful, quaint town in Connecticut, close to the border of Rhode Island with old cape houses with gardens that line narrow, meandering streets.  Taken by this beautiful cornflower blue house as we walked by, I remembered I hadn't been practicing my color shifting lately.

  One skill an artist should always work on is their inherent feel and understanding of color.  When mixing pigment on your palette, one should try and become the color, absorb yourself into it, feel the richness of it or its quiet shade so that you know where it wants to be on the canvas.  This will help your process flow naturally.

 I'll walk you through the steps of color shifting and I hope you find this will remarkably improve your color sensitivity as you create.

1. Stand in as close proximity to the color you would like to shift into. You may find articles of your clothing start shifting right away.  This is normal.

2. Close your eyes and envision the color, how it feels (cool, warm, intense, weak, kinetic, still...).  It is important not to overthink it.

3. Envision yourself as that color.  Your skin, hair, toenails, everything must shift to this new color.  When you are ready, slowly walk away from the color you have been standing next to, holding the vision of yourself as this color in your mind.

note: It is best to walk away from the color at first in order to strengthen your independent color nature.  Eventually this will not be necessary and you may be able to eliminate step 3.  ALso, it is helpful to have a buddy* so they can critique how accurate your shifting is.  You may find that you shift a few shades too light at first.  This is natural.

4. Shift!

*I was lucky enough to have Corby there to get a picture of me.  This was my first time color AND shape shifting.  When I realized the color shifting was happening quite easily ,  I decided to try and take it one step further and became a hose.  Sometimes you never know what you might become so it's a little risky.  You can see me in the last picture there.  But that's a very advanced state of shifting.

To unshift just simply think of another color radically different and you will pop right back to normal.  The more you practice the stronger your color sense becomes.

Have fun!