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Arts and Medicine – Alison Read, Harpist

11×14 oil on panel – painted from life

There are days when all the stars align and you get to do something really, really special. Today was one of those days for me. The Arts and Medicine program at Baylor Hospital is one of the things I love most about Dallas. It is made up of art therapists, music therapists, artists and musicians. Sometimes, I get to paint when one of the musicians is playing. Today, was one of those really special days. The AMAZING Alison Read played a harp concert just for me, while I painted her! Ok, it wasn’t just for me, it was for all the patients, doctors, and caregivers in the hospital. It felt like it was just for me. I will attach a video of Alison’s beautiful music. What I didn’t capture was her amazing laugh, it fills spirits like a helium tank. I floated out of the hospital today:)

P.s. I painted that tiny bit of Harp peeking out behind her head to look like a halo on purpose. 😇

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Caroline

18″x12″ charcoal on chanson paper

Drawing from life. I started with a gesture, and then found smaller shapes, then shadow shapes…and along cane a face from all those shapes!

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Pink Bicycle

Today is International Girls Day! I love to think about the fact that all the strong women I know were once girls, and all the girls I know can grow up to be strong women.

If you love this style of art, consider taking my Mixed Media Abstracted Figure Workshop. November 14th and 15th, Sunnyvale, TX. I promise you don’t have to be able to draw, come and play, learn something new, and leave with two finished 16″x20″ gallery wrapped canvases.

Please enjoy a celebration of pink paintings this month, in honor of breast cancer awareness. I paint for my friends and family who have fought the good fight against cancer, for their families, and for all caregivers who help along with the journey toward a healthy self (body, soul, and spirit). In my strokes of pink, are prayers of strength and healing.

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Pure Joy!

9″ square mixed media on canvas paper

JUMP! Jump for joy! This image made me smile. It is a study for a commission. This painting took on a life of its own. It strayed wildly from the palette I chose for the commission. This image just didn’t want to be a beautiful neutral, it wanted to sing loud and clear! I used a Holbein acrylic color named “luminous opera” which has a much more poetic ring than “fluorescent pink.”

Please enjoy a celebration of pink paintings this month, in honor of breast cancer awareness. I paint for my friends and family who have fought the good fight against cancer, for their families, and for all caregivers who help along with the journey toward a healthy self (body, soul, and spirit). In my strokes of pink, are prayers of strength and healing.

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Walking to School – SHOW!

24″x36″ oil on canvas

Please come see my show “Walking to School”! It will open at the Sunderman Gallery There will be an opening reception 6-8pm, Thursday, September 13th. 5100 Ross Avenue, DALLAS,TX 75206

I use my art as a way to notice something beautiful everyday. “Walking to School” has been a whimsical fun series chronicaling my second grade daughter’s daily walks to school.   My 3 older children all start school an hour before my youngest. We like to eat breakfast as a family, so that leaves Lydia and I an extra hour every morning. What I am trying to do is not waste our gift of time, the phrase “killing time” is a phrase that makes me so sad. Instead of “killing” that time I have painted it, and all the adventures and beauty that we found in those extra hours. This series is about half landscapes of what we have seen on our daily walks and half mixed media pieces of people walking. It includes: homework, tardy slips and bit and pieces we collected along the way.  In addition to many kinds of media, I have used a bit of magical realism in these paintings. For example, in “Spokes and Shadows” the light was beautiful, the shadows were beautiful, but the backdrop was generic new suburbia. In my mind, I saw a fantastic tree lined drive, with a young girl pumping up a hill onto great things. In the painting, I created the leaves with bits of homework. As the leaves fell, I could imagine the days and years and the entirety of Lydia’s childhood landing on the drive as she confidently rode into the future.

These paintings are about being present: we put away the phone, compose a rhyme or poem, talk about the day, share our hopes and dreams, plan dinner or our next family celebration.  We notice what is in bloom, when the leaves change color, or when someone repainted their front door. We have noted that all those carpoolers don’t have a chance to: meet a new neighbor, pet a kitten, do a cartwheel, twirl a tutu, pick a flower or sneak a fresh fig hanging over the fence.

In painting this series, my hope is you will be reminded of a sweet memory of when you walked with your friends, siblings, or parent to school. Or you will be reminded of when your child walked to school. Perhaps you will be inspired to be present and get out and find the beauty and life that is in YOUR neighborhood waiting for you to just enjoy and discover!  Perhaps you can grab your dog, or kid, or mom, or neighbor and embark in a simple way to really live your life…go for a walk.

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Hiking Hand in Hand

8″x10″These girls are so strong, and so sweet. I loved that they were hiking holding hands on the amount Massive Trail. However, if I were to be completely honest, I painted this because their shadows look like little yetis, and the shape delighted me.

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Master and Apprentice

11″x9″ pastel on sanded paper

Watching through the windows at all the levels of classical ballet at my daughter’s studio delights me. Images at the bar are easiest to capture because they do the same things over and over again.

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We and Our Shadow

4’x3′ mixed media

Walking to School series No• 15

“Friendship is the shadow of the evening, which increases with the setting sun of life.” -Jean de La Fontaine

I count the friendship between these two among my biggest blessings.

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Waiting in the Wings

12″x9″ pastel on sanded paper

I used the pallet I have been using to paint evening primrose flowers to paint these little dancers. I also used as few strokes as possible. I find fields of flowers are more beautiful, and interesting with less information spelled out not more, perhaps that technique will work tiny ballerinas?