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Posts from the ‘inspiration’ Category

Apr 5

Loving Springtime

It’s been a while since I’ve posted but all for good reasons. I’ve been focusing on painting a new group of works for my upcoming feature exhibition at the Portland Art Gallery in Maine. Spring is finally in the air here in New Hampshire after a very cold and snowy winter. I love working in the wintertime as it offers more quiet time than other seasons of the year. This gives me a chance to review recent work and make plans for new directions. Some artists wing it and throw caution to the wind. Others take some time to figure out how recent work can be a springboard for upcoming artworks. I’m in that category working in sketchbooks and playing with color and techniques until I feel a fresh approach appearing. Then it’s time to come out of hibernation and get to work.

Lesson learned: Have a sketchbook continually being filled with both good and bad ideas.

Oct 7

2 Comments

Right to Left Side Changes Everything

‘Close By’, acrylic on canvas, 36×36, available now at Portland Art Gallery, Portland, Maine.

While recovering from right shoulder surgery I decided to continue working on my art…with my left hand. An awkward thing to do after primarily using my dominant right hand my whole life but I considered it a challenge as I worked to ‘loosen up’ my artmaking. I’ve tended to use clean edges with obvious texture in my work, crisp edges arrived at by frequently using a palette knife to lay down sharp edges. Now with use of only left arm for 6 plus weeks, and limited use of right arm for the past two months, I pushed my way through the awkwardness of left handedness to find ways to still make art but with a new sense of freedom. The piece above, ‘Close By’ was created with various mark-making tools and techniques that I could accomplish with my left–stamping, scratching through semi-wet layers, not worrying about accuracy but simply the gist of shapes with refreshed color palette. All in all a good experiment and now that I am on the mend with more use of right arm, I’ll still be using my left to be sure I stay loose with my upcoming works.

Lesson learned: Right and left are equally valuable. Click image below to be taken to my website.

Jul 23

A New Way

Working in a different way than I have been accustomed to is not as easy as you might think. Well-tuned moves and ideas can be difficult to adjust or change completely. In my case not using a drawing tool to rough out an idea is a dramatic change as I explore working without a plan. Using intuition rather than a set plan, even a rough one, is a change my mind is working to find its way around. The 8×8 collage shown here is a practice of pulling paper images together, selecting from them shapes, values and line to piece together something that I have never pre-thought out. My brain is still making the adjustment as it is easy to fall back on tried and true. Loving the idea of working in a more abstract way despite the stutter steps. See my recent work now at Portland Art Gallery in Portland Maine or Kennedy Gallery and framing in Portsmouth NH.

In the last couple of months I have been recuperating from rotator cuff surgery (going well so far). It has made it impossible to paint in large format until the tendon is fully repaired. I am working in a smaller format to explore ways that I might not have done before my surgery. All good things to come.

Lesson learned: Interruptions can be blessings in disguise.

Dec 13

By Your Side at Christmastime

By Your Side, acrylic on canvas, 24 x24. Available at Portland Art Gallery, Middle Street, Portland, Maine.

As I prepare for Christmas, I always feel so grateful for the special people I have come to know as friends and family. As a young person and as an adult, I had no idea that an individual person could enrich my life as much as they have. From helping me find my way in art, to showing me how to have fun with whipped cream fights in the kitchen, to demonstrating how to let things fall as they may and be ok with the unpredictable outcome. Each one of you has helped me in a small or large way making it possible for me to feel that you have been a gift of Christmas past, present and future. Hope you feel the love of being or giving a gift this Christmas.

Lesson learned: Share your gift.

2023 Calendar now on sale at Kennedy Gallery in Portsmouth NH. Click link for info.

Sep 13

3 Comments

Side by side or side by each

Each photo is a detail of a much larger painting. It was selected to demonstrate the various ways I paint similar situations I have created in my work. They each speak to togetherness, friendship, and the simplicity of just being together with someone you love.

I can speak for many of us when I say we all have a special someone in our life. Someone who sees us for who we really are yet gives us space to grow and mature. It is that person who is represented in these doorway images I frequently incorporate in my work. It is intentionally not a portrait but a symbol/gist/likeness of what it may look like to be part of another person – note where I have merged color to connect people together. To love being close and feeling their warmth. Sharing life’s lights and darks, it’s rough and smooth edges, its absolute joys and sorrows. Some of my fans and collectors find all this imbued in my work and let me know through heartfelt notes and emails. When I began making these images I was not aware of how deeply someone else would feel about them. After over 10 years of painting fulltime, I now know that what I create can hit home in ways I never imagined. Thank you for allowing my work to touch your soul and in some cases, heal it.

Lesson learned: Do it anyway.

See note at right. Choose from these four options, or choose to be surprised!

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See more of my work online at anntrainordomingue.com

Apr 13

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When will it end?

As Time Goes By, acrylic on canvas, 40×60. Available at Portland Art Gallery, Maine

After an eventful winter and spring this new painting holds a different kind of sentiment now. The small circular shapes were like an image of days passing by, suns or moons, your choosing. Then the light coming in from behind the shelter building felt like a new day dawning with endless possibilities. That was before the attack on Ukraine by Putin. How horrible an experience for the Ukrainians to have to endure. And to see that no other country or group of allies can or will do anything to immediately stop the human destruction of little children, elderly, and families who just a few weeks ago were enjoying all the things we enjoy here in USA. Really? Nothing more can be done to stop the unbelievable murderous, callous evil of Putin? I pray for intervention of any kind to bring peace to those poor brave people. And I pray that God, in whatever form you believe or not, will stop Putin’s heart.

Lesson learned: Evil exists unless good people do something to stop it.

Dec 30

2 Comments

Dawn Breaking 2022

Breaking Dawn, 24×24 acrylic on panel available at Portland Art Gallery, Portland Maine.

If we believe the best is yet to come, that all things are possible with God (whichever iteration you choose to believe or not believe in), that we each need to follow our own path, that being nice still matters, that retaining our personal freedom to make our own decisions is valuable, that loving our neighbor as ourself is kindness in action, that peacefully coexisting in an increasingly diverse society is important, that solving differences does not need to lead to violence of any kind, that giving and receiving a sincere hug is a warm gift, then maybe we can –I will– begin the new year with a renewed heart and open mind and be the help someone else needs to find their joy again. I hope you make it a Happy New Year and find your own Peace.

Lesson learned: One timid step leads to another more confident step in the right direction.

Sep 8

The Art of Conversation

All Our Tomorrows, acrylic and paper on wood panel, 36×36. Available at Portland Art Gallery, Portland Maine.

‘All Our Tomorrows’ evolved during the late spring early summer 2021 as I was preparing for an upcoming feature show at Portland Art Gallery. I experimented with developing a painting in a different way by cutting tissue paper shapes of some main design elements in a collage-style approach and then layering fast drying acrylic to build color and depth. This work is a continuation of my recent coastal-inspired relationship series.

Now after the confusing and difficult year of 2020, problems have been brought forward into 2021 with even more divisive issues. We all hoped things would settle down for a while. But not so fast.

This painting evolved into this image that amid the chaos of life some sense of connection, love and caring can still be found. Two people. A simple hand held. A most powerful relationship when each finds what is most important in one other. Good things begin this way.

This is an image of hope for the future that people will value each other’s differing opinions instead of forcing the other to submit to an ideology that is not in line with their own understandings, sensibilities and life experiences. What ever happened to having an opinion about a topic and having a conversation with another human being? Wasn’t this how we resolved differences or let ‘bygones be bygones’? Or simply allow another person to maintain their point of view while still being friends? Is this really a lost art? I hope not.

Lesson learned: Kindness matters.

Jul 22

3 Comments

Village in the Pursuit of Happiness

“… home was not just a cabin in a deep woods that overlooked a placid cove. Home was a state of mind, the peace that came from being who you were and living an honest life.” ― Kristin Hannah, The Great Alone

Detail of ‘Village in the Pursuit of Happiness 2’, acrylic on canvas

We all have such different ideas of what home is. The quote above was one I found while doing a bit of searching for a quote by an author that resonated with me and reflected the small family vignette of one of my large paintings I have selected for this post.

This image is part of a 40″x60″ acrylic painting titled ‘Village in the Pursuit of Happiness’. In this ‘village’ series I have incorporated several different visual ideas of what living in a village feels like for me. I am careful to not be too precious with shapes and color and detail rather letting all the vignettes live together peacefully as a painting. View a full image of ‘Village in the Pursuit of Happiness’ with this link.https://anntrainordomingue.com/Art/Detail.php?artid=1211296

Lesson Learned: Home is not only the shelter we live in, but also how we create a life together in the shelter of home.

Apr 6

Everyday Change

Everyday Catch, acrylic on canvas, 12×12, available at Kennedy Gallery Portsmouth NH

Just like a seagull’s never-ending quest for food, we know many patterns of behavior are constantly changing and evolving. Some seem fair and manageable, others seem unfair and difficult to adjust to. Post 2020, thankfully we don’t have to change everything according to what others are asking or pressuring us to do. If a change makes sense according to my ideas, beliefs and understanding then I would consider it and likely adopt it. If it doesn’t make sense I won’t.

I’ll continue to review the changing atmosphere we are living in and make my own evaluations based on credible varied sources of information. Not easy to decipher these days with the increasing power of tech media companies who seemed at their inception to be providing a world-changing opportunity to make all information accessible to all. Now it seems they are actually a center for censorship appointing themselves as the arbiter of what ‘they’ think I/we can handle. I thought the ‘world wide web’ was a free and open universe to access contrary information and educate ourselves about anything in our world.

As an artist, change is welcome yet so is consistency.

Lesson learned: Be discerning of the biases of information sources before adopting change.

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