Heading South

My husband and I are heading south for the 3rd year to be involved with assisting a medical group for 10 days in the hills of Guatemala. If you would like to learn more then you can look at http://www.helpsintl.org/, and look at the article entitled "Changing the Lives Changed Her Life". This is about a young woman who worked with a team similar to the one in which we work. I will be helping to cook meals for the 144 medical and support team members. My husband will be building ONIL stoves in Mayan homes and my daughter will be helping the Dental team with translating and the young children. Here are a few pictures of some of the things which fill our eyes and mind while we are there.

With love/ Out and About!

 gave myself an early Valentine yesterday. I had been thinking about 3 landscape artists who are having shows here in Denver. For various unforgivable reasons I had missed their openings. So I thought the middle of the afternoon during the week would be an excellent time to have a quiet moment with their art. I knew each artist would use "landscape" differently but until I made the trip to see their art I had no true idea.

The first artist's work I visited was the art of Joellyn Duesberry. I had seen an earlier show of hers a week ago entitled "Sharpening the Edge" at the Denver Botanic Gardens.

I became acquainted with her work in the early '90's through pieces the Denver Art Museum purchased and then through various magazine articles I had read. I personally am very much drawn (no pun intended) to her paintings.

Now let me say right now, lets get it out, I love to look at her work. I am delighted with her packed compositions. Notice how high her horizon usually is.

 I bought a video about her and have been reading about how she has developed, so today only, I am probably close to being an expert about her oeuvre. If you have questions please put them to me. So I bet you could tell she is interested in structure and she is a plein aire painter as well as a studio painter.

This is a smaller painting. Her work is frequently quite large and can be tripdyches and dypdyches.

Ooh, I forgot to say I got to see a larger collection of Joly's work (no, I don't know her personally but the gallery owner called her that, and I am a quick learner). Ms. Duesberry's work can be seen, if you live in Denver at 1261 Gallery, in a show entitled "Landscape Survey", until February 27. Ms. Duesberry currently spends time between Denver and Maine.

This painting is of the Maine coast.

However she has lived and traveled in and to a variety of places in the world. I especially enjoyed seeing her carry a large canvas on site and begin working on it. Now I haven't seen her do this in person but in the video "Dialogue with the Artist", Joellyn Duesberry. www.joellynduesberry.com

You can watch her working on site on a painting "Above the Elk river, Steamboat Springs". This painting is 72"x60". She notes that she is influenced by Cezanne and her work reflects that. A major influence was moving west and hitting the clear bright light that is out here and has influenced and changed so many painters,( such as Georgia O'Keefe), but also studying with Richard Diebenkorn for a month in Santa Fe in 1986. Actually I am going to have you enjoy some more of her work.

In these two paintings you can observe how she likes to work on site during warm weather and then during the winter months, move into her studio and rethink her work. She frequently does this by making a monoprint and in that process simplifing her idea.

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So here is a final monoprint and I will end todays post and talk about the other two landscape artists I saw another day. If you are interested in landscape you might also be interested in looking at and thinking about landscapes you could look up The Art of the Landscape which Katherine Tyrrell is putting together. http://art-landscape.blogspot.com,  http://makingamark.blogspot.com/

Color Intersection

In the middle of winter I can count on seeing reds, oranges and purples at the Botannical Gardens. I can step into a humid warm place and feel and get a botannical preview of my upcoming trip to Guatemala.

I didn't know I could get almost the same effect at the Vance Kirkland Museum here in Denver until I visited there this past week. I  ran into many recognizable forms and colors but without the humidity.

Vance Kirkland is a Colorado artist who lived from 1904 - 1981, this is a so called dot painting, a series upon which he worked from 1963-1981.

Color as painted by Kirkland in his Floating Abstracts from 1951-1954, and tropical plants from the gardens.

Color intersects with Nature and the Artist.

For more information check out http://www.kirklandmuseum.org/ and the Denver Botannical Gardens.

Looking at a Winter Garden

Going to the Botannic Gardens for just an hour or two is a great way to fill my eyes with beauty. Last Sunday I found more than bunnies hiding in the bushes and peeking out between tree roots.

Here's what the western cousin of Peter gets to peek at. Interspersed between the long lines of trees, bushes and dry grasses a new rounded form has appeared. Something is moving in over the winter. Do you recognize this form? Does this shape strike a familiar chord?

Yes the sculptures of Henry Moore are finding comfortable places to rest. Carefully the sculptures of Henry Moore are being placed and planted in this garden. This is the largest U.S. Henry Moore show and has just left the Atlanta area arriving here.

I plan to come back at various seasons and look at the way the sculpture appears in the strong summer light or the golden colors of autumn. Yes the exhibit will be completely prepared and open by March 8 and will be around until January 31,2011. That will be time enough for Peters cousins to multiply and agree with Henry Moore who said, " sculpture is an art of the open air, Daylight and sunlight is necessary to it."