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Posts from the ‘landscape’ Category

Sep 13

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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!

Please follow me on Instagram anntrainordomingue, or on Facebook at anntrainordomingueart.

If you would please confirm your interest in following my blog please let me know via email at atdomingue@gmail.com. If you’d like to stay or be added to my snail mail list, please email your snail mail address and I will ship you two blank art greeting cards as a thank you.

See more of my work online at anntrainordomingue.com

Dec 30

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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.

Jul 22

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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.

Oct 7

Calendar by Ann Trainor Domingue!

This is my first calendar and I am excited to let you see it just before it is ready for sale! I am distributing it through one venue only– Kennedy Gallery and Custom Framing located at 41 Market Street in Portsmouth, NH. Please call to reserve yours at 603-436-7007 or send email to art@kennedygalleryandframing.com

The calendar is quite different from standard art calendars in that I have included a story and inspiration behind each artwork to let you in on the behind the scenes work and thought process of each of 12 frameable images. Several images are also available as blank notecards and prints also only available at Kennedy Gallery. Just ask, they will be happy to help. See sample page below.

Thank you for your interest in the calendar. the image above shows the 12 different artworks included in the 2021 calender. This will make a great gift for someone who loves art and the thinking behind an art work.

Lesson learned: Take a risk and the rest will work itself out in due time.

Oct 21

Opening Barn Doors in 2020

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Once a year I open the doors of my little barn studio to the public for an Open Studio event. This year ‘For Spacious Skies’ is the theme and the title of the artwork in the image above. #nhopendoors.com #clarkridgefarmdunbartonnh

I’ve worked for many years using imagery I discover along the seacoasts of New England and also incorporate imagery I find nearer to home here in New Hampshire. Farms and barns abound in just a few miles from my home and I’ve begun a new series dedicated to exploring the shapes, colors, textures and people that capture my attention in a similar way I have in my New England coastal series.

Wood fired maple boiling
Aged beautiful barn–one of many nearby
Beginning to love horses…
Perfect day for maple sugaring open house/barn

Here’s a bit of a heads up to what is in store for my muddy art journey in 2020. It will include some manure, muck, maple syrup, blue jeans, boots and plenty of sunshine. Hope you’ll follow my journey inland.

Lesson learned: Pay attention to what captures my attention.

Dec 9

Embracing Family, Embracing Series

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Every Which Way, 24×36, acrylic

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Pattern in Blues, 24×36, acrylic

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Time of Day, 24×24, acrylic.

Its taken me some time to really embrace the idea of working in a series. I understand the concept and can readily see it in other artists’ work, but have consistently had difficulties adopting this idea in developing my own work, until now. The examples above show my recent attempts at exploring elements of my work and producing new works that embody aspects related to one another. Sort of like a family of children who look very similar, but are unique in their own way. Here’s where it has been tough for me. My background as an illustrator has given me broad skills to create just about anything. But that is not necessarily helpful in my career as a painter. Here’s what I’ve learned.

My extended family reaches far into the world as we have welcomed the changes life brings, and all is well. Marriages, divorces, friends, godchildren, distant relatives–not unlike many of you I’m sure. As relationships relate to my artwork though it sometimes appears as though I’ve adopted children from another planet, never mind my own world. So I have found it helpful to model my new found attention to working in a series after my family. Now it makes a bit more sense as I develop new art—as I choose which aspects to retain, and which to remember as an important lesson.

Finding the core element of the New England landscape (my lifelong home area) has been key to creating an armature/home where I can then change details while keeping a foundation in place. I’ll proceed into the New Year 2017 with a blueprint–one where I will still be able to enjoy serendipitous happenings as I evaluate new ideas to keep my family of work warm and cozy.

Hope you and your family have a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year. And as always, thank you for your continued support.

Ann

(If interested in any of these artworks, consult my website http://www.anntrainordomingue.com or contact me directly.)

 

Sep 6

My treasure, someone else’s trash

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Found along back road of Concord/Bow NH

Broken down, unpainted, overgrown, rusty, messy. All the right elements for me to put on the brakes and stop the car.

Listed in no particular order: variety of warm and cool grays, strong verticals of trees and barn boards, haphazardly placed metal roofing piece, way-passed-usefulness–except for an artist–pickup truck, early fall dried branches of overgrown weeds and brambles that soften the hard edges of the non-natural forms of the truck and trash. And the splash of blue tarp color always a must.

No real plans for this beauty yet, but the wheels are turning…

 

May 19

Today’s the Day

16513 Sketched Around 2 acryl ink and wc on paper 8x10 coso.jpg

Opening reception tonight May 19th,  5:30-7:30 at Copley Society of Art, Newbury Street, Boston, MA. Meet and visit with six recent Copley Fellows who completed month-long residencies in either Cape Ann or Provincetown, MA. Stop in or visit the gallery, show is up through June. copleysociety.org

This piece in the show titled, “Sketched Around” 8×10 ink and watercolor, has a little history but nothing a redraw can’t fix. This is about a view from my studio that disappears in summer with the solidness of fully leafed out trees, and then appears again as the leaves fall in autumn. The tree structures stay while the colors change. This ink and stick sketch/drawing tries to give my impression the this movement of the seasons. If you look closely you’ll see a building/structure through the branches. It brings a bit of geometric contrast to the scratchy branching lines.

Mar 24

6 Comments

Together on the Road

16471 Life Tapestry mixed media acryl fabr on canv 54x54 sm

Life Tapestry, 52×52, acrylic and fabric on canvas

Some artworks take on a life of their own where they are directing you instead of you directing them. This one is a perfect example. I thought I would do a large piece of a couple walking together toward the woods with light coming through tree branches. Probably using fairly realistic colors and imagery. As I was working my mind went toward a larger idea of ‘lifetime’ and how we all experience different things that add up to our unique experience in life.

I believe because I had been experimenting with fabrics for other works the idea of using the colored swatches at the left of this painting to suggest the colorful experiences of life crept into my psyche as I worked on this piece. It became a focal area and a complement to the verticality of the trees. I repeated colors into the tree branches to echo the swatches. The two figures are purposely secondary as their proportion to the bigness of their life is surprising. I hope we all get to feel that our lives have been well lived and well loved.

Lesson learned during this process, I need to talk with my work to find out how things are going. It’s probably not going where I thought at the beginning. And its ok.

Mar 17

Listening to All That Jazz

comparison Mar 2015 smThis post is a recent lesson in listening–no, not to jazz music, but to the sounds of my own improvised thoughts. Hearing what the painting is trying to tell me as I add my part to the conversation–lines, color, shapes, forms, textures. Instead of a straightforward journey this one turned into a ride down a windy country road. Finishing up at a quiet place. Click on the image below to read the details of just how this journey evolved.  And please feel free to share this post or go to my website to see new works.  www.anntrainordomingue.com

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