Abstracting an image of the Georgia O'Keefee House

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On March 11, 2020 I moved home and set up a studio in my den, never imagining that a year later I would still be painting small paintings in that little studio. 

I cannot say that it was a year lost. I have painted more in the past year and experimented than ever before.

As most of you know I have painted mostly realistic impressionist work. So this little story may come as a surprise to some of you.

In 2017 I had the good fortune of going to New Mexico for a conference and while there I spent a day at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe and going to Georgia O’Keeffe‘s home in Abiquiu. 

While at her home I must’ve taken a couple dozen photos. About a week ago my girlfriend who went with me to that conference, Julie Dameron, sent me a video from her photos of our time touring New Mexico. This made me look back through my photos and I decided to see if I could abstract Georgia’s home. 

Here’s my photo and painting. What do you think? Would Georgia approve? I know I’m having fun and learning a lot. I do love knife painting!!

Ciao, 

Phyllis

Sailing: A Metaphor for Life

I titled my upcoming art show “When the Wind Stops". When I told someone that was the name of my show they questioned me about this title and couldn’t see how sailing and painting related and why did I see that some sailboats in the middle of a body of water could represent life or painting, for that matter.

Here’s the photo that my friend, Elizabeth took during a sailboat race she was in. They were about halfway through the race when the wind just stopped. All the boats are sitting idle in the middle of Puget Sound with their sails all out. I asked her what they did when that happens!! She talked about awareness. They had to be aware of the most subtle signs, such as the small ripples as possibilities, making preparations for the wind to return, scanning the weather radios, checking radar. All these things went into making a decision as to whether they were going to wait it out, or call for help, or motor back to the yacht club. 

Haven’t we all had things happen in our lives that stopped us in our tracks, sent us wanting to hide under bed coverings, or to the doctor, or into a depression? Well, it’s really what we do with these same terms… awareness of possibilities, preparation, scanning or checking on things, isn’t it, that makes the difference? I’m using the boats stopped in the water with no wind blowing in as a metaphor for my life.

Hope you will come to my show and see my painting of this scene. Such a great photo!