Musings about art, life, travel, and the creative process.
Few things make me happier than a fresh leather bound art travel journal with blank pages waiting to be filled! The virgin white pages fill me with anticipation - visual stories that I will look back on in future years. Whether the resulting images will be a reflection of literal places or from my imagined worlds, they are travelogues of the epic quest…
Read MoreI don’t remember how I first heard about the Toronto area based painter Janice Mason Steeves, but I felt an immediate kinship when I saw her earthy, minimalist, abstract paintings. It seemed that we also shared a love of northern, vast, bleak landscapes, and we have both visited Iceland as an artist in residence - albeit at different residencies. The paintings that have come from her residencies and workshops there reflect the cool earth tones and the silence and spaciousness of that far northern wonderland.
She also leads classes in oil and cold wax, and chooses often to hold workshops in such far afield places as Ireland, the wild west coast of Canada, and soon to be locations in Scotland and Mongolia…
Read MoreThe heat is already bearing down, the skies hazy with drifting wildfire smoke from miles away, and my default guidance system pulls me north. Could be my genetic predisposition - 98% British Isles, Irish, French and Scandinavian. I'm not built for heat and glaring sunlight.
I did a residency in Iceland back in 2012 at Gullkistan, and wrote this passage in my sketchbook while there:
"To be in Iceland, the newest land mass on the planet - the rumbling belly of continents. Breaking, stretching, gasping open. Bleak, scoured, fertile. The clouds pan across the flatlands - spreading…
Read MoreTrine Bumiller is a Denver based painter who has a special interest in the natural world. Her oil paintings are shown around the world and she is represented by Robishchon gallery in Denver, and Zg Gallery in Chicago. She has also been to numerous artist residencies, including one in Denali National Park in Alaska.
Even though we live in neighboring cities, I first met Trine recently at a residency at Brush Creek Arts in Saratoga WY. At that time she was working on a huge project…
Read MoreSome people are steady at the helm of their creative activity, and are regular like roughage. That's not me. Try as I might there can be long gaps between painting sessions. Such as it is now, after the solid month of painting at my residency at Brush Creek Ranch. Sometimes I return from a residency - spent. Other times, energized, but am pulled away by life's other needs.
The longing to get back at it is a blessing and a curse at times…
Read MoreThank you to Artsyshark.com for their feature artist article - you can read more on their site. Click the image:
"In life and art, I long for the horizon. There is an invisible tether that pulls me toward the unknown, and this is reflected in the artwork that I do. Even in my purely abstract paintings, it’s always about a mythical journey of discovery. I always want to know…”
Read MoreJust a few days left of our residency here at Brush Creek Ranch. Time stands still and whizzes by, simultaneously. This vast landscape inspires and intimidates at times, even being from Colorado. Our daily hikes have added dimension to our isolated camp, and from the high perches, there is a sense of scale and orientation, sometimes missing from the low valleys.
Read MoreI've noticed a pattern while at a month long residency, that almost without fail repeats itself. Currently I'm at the midpoint, where I feel that nothing is working, and I can't paint!
The first week is full of vim and vigor, as all the artists get to know each other, we set up our studios and get cracking. The second week builds on that momentum and the studio begins to fill up with, at least, works in process. Then the midway point happens - suddenly
Read MoreAll about ARTIST RESIDENCIES - how to find the right one for you,create a compelling application and become an artist in residence. EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW!
For those who are creative and love to travel, artist residencies are the Holy Grail. From Antarctica to the Arctic Circle and everywhere between, artist residencies are dedicated places for creatives to focus on their work, travel to cool places and
Read MoreSomething about the horizon line keeps showing up in my work out here in the wide open spaces of Wyoming. This is not the first time - the horizon is a composition I naturally gravitate to, in many ways - literally and metaphorically. There is an invisible tether that pulls, and sometimes yanks me toward the horizon, ever longing for the unknown.
This I think is partly the human condition, to be
Read More"Warning - extreme blowover danger!" The flashing signs crossing Wyoming on HWY 80 meant business. The 65mph + winds rattled and rocked my little Mini Cooper Clubman. But she held steady, helped I presume by the weight of 10 heavy panels for painting and a few hundred pounds of art supplies and other stuff. Art saves lives!
I was met by my host at the gates to this 15,000 acre luxury working cattle ranch in the
Read MoreOne of my favorite of the etchings I did at London Print Studio last month. I layered a gestural painting I did with my drawing of water to create the etching plate, then rolled layers of ink on the surface of the plate for the color. Each print is unique in that way. Finished image is 10" x 8" on Fabriano archival paper.
Read MoreMy month long residency here in Iceland is drawing to a close. My small group of fellow artists and I all lament the passing of this time too quickly, and I'm wanting to anchor the memories and experiences in a way that will create some permanency. It is all about the landscape in this world of fire and ice, and it does not disappoint. Every turn of the bend…
Read MoreJoin me for my solo exhibition at the Dairy Center for the Arts in Boulder CO. This is selection of the 2 years of being an artist in residence around the world.
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