 Last winter, my husband and I had to go shopping. When I got out of our car in the parking lot, there was a big truck parked right next to us. It had mud, road salt, and lots of drips running down the sides of the vehicle. I looked closely and became intrigued by the fascinating patterns that I could see within what most people would call a mess and in dire need of cleaning. Before long, I was seeing trees, sand dunes, ski slopes... and wondering how I could paint or draw what was evolving before my very eyes. There is a strong chance that my husband thought I was a little strange and probably thinking "Here she goes again", but really, I could actually see scenes in the salt and mud drippings. I grabbed my phone and took some photos hoping the owner of the truck didn't catch me in the act. I have always been fascinated by patterns. I think it started way back in childhood when I looked at a blade of grass under my new toy microscope. I discovered that the edges of the grass were serrated like it was a knife. I didn't know that. Hmmm. That discovery got me checking out lots of things and, very likely, has contributed to the art I do today where I look for colours within my painting and then make patterns by drawing around the edges. Was there a message in all this for me? Something like "Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder"? Or "One man's trash is another man's treasure. Or even the well-quoted "Every cloud has a silver lining"? What do you see in this photo? Perhaps this winter you'll find some Abstract Art in the weirdest places... ~ Marlene The dust was starting to settle after experiencing a few challenging years, and it felt like I had the “go ahead” to get involved again in art shows and art markets. Previously, I had been involved with an artist group, and when I heard that they were having a show in a few weeks, I phoned the organizer and asked if there was any space for me. She said “Yes!” I hadn’t been able to pursue any art for awhile so I didn’t have any new inventory to display. Besides, I longed for something fresh and new that was different from my oil paintings that were stored in my basement. The clock was ticking. The Art show was three weeks away. What was I to do? I asked God for help.  Within a short period of time, I remembered a Christmas when I made some painted cards for my two daughter-in-laws and how much fun I had doing them. I wondered how those little Abstract-Realism paintings would look on a bigger scale. I realized that art using watercolour, ink and paper which would be easier to do in my much smaller studio space. Besides, they’d be less smelly than the oil paints I used previously.
I decided to give it a try but added little “bubbles” to represent thankfulness for the divine help I received to that helped me get through those difficult years. Why “Colour Captured. Line Anchored’? It’s about putting down loosely painted watercolour and then finding the individual colours and anchoring each with ink. And so, that is how the series “Ascending” was born. |