Begin Where I Ended

Gem of the Moon 6×6 acrylic 2011

It used to be a real problem for me to paint a series of related images. For some reason I thought I had already done a painting in a subject and felt I needed to move on to something else.–to flowers to semi abstract to drawing to painting to landscape to seascape to farmland to animals to children to still life, and on and on. Until I finally accepted the advice of a non-artist friend to ‘just do another one similar but different’.

Seemed so simple.

Heading In and Out acrylic 36×36  2014

I was of the mind that I should do something very different than my most recent work. The general public doesn’t know you did that earlier version and you will not be making an exact copy of it again. As a creative person I should just be able to shift aspects from size, to color combination, to content and create a new art piece based on an earlier one’. At last the definition of working in a series made sense to me.

Right at Home acrylic 18×18 2017

I now thread my way to the next piece–moving just a little forward, sometimes sideways from my current work to make progress toward something different yet connected by threads of color, forms, subject, painting style or line work. It is amazing how the words of Robert Henri, an American artist and member of the Ashcan School in NYC, born in 1865– “Don’t worry about your originality. You couldn’t get rid of it even if you wanted to. It will stick with you and show up for better or worse in spite of all you or anyone else can do.”

Just Ask acrylic 10×10 2018

After having done many hundreds of paintings in my lifetime I now can see the thread of ideas and style begun many years ago. I continue patching new pieces of my story to my already established quilt of my painting life.

Lesson learned: Pickup where you left off and take a small step.

If you are in Portsmouth NH over April, please stop by my solo show ‘Undercurrents’ new works for 2019 at Kennedy Gallery on Market Street, Portsmouth. http://www.kennedygalleryandframing.com Thank you! –Ann