#74 - #79 of 100 Creations in 100 Days: Working/Playing Hard with Divine Inspiration

Working/playing hard today

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I feel as if I’m finally getting someplace I’ve been wanting to go for a long long time. Finally. Time makes a real difference. 

I have five small canvases I started working on before Paris. They’re all of Iceland. I painted them realistically, giving them all the tenderness I feel for the land. Recognizing what I have to give is not what Monet has to give. I don’t have those strokes. I have a tender gentle realistic stroke. 

Then I wanted to infuse the strokes with feeling, with the intensity I feel when I am there. With the light that is behind the clouds. With the energy in the ground. The pieces morphed. I had to start new ones. And/or risk a crazy change and assume I wouldn’t want to do it, wouldn’t have it available in my thoughts, if it wasn’t the right thing to do. It’s 12” of canvas. Who cares?

And magic is happening. I’m very pleased. I have decided to go to Iceland for the month of September. July is too expensive and too soon and I’m already obligated to teach then. 

Here are the pieces:

#74

Finished. I enjoyed the smoothness and subtleties of this. There are many colors in the grey, no black. And lots of colors in the white. And then I had to do this on a second canvas:

Same scene. More feeling. Disregard for visual reality. Attention to emotional reality. 

I did this image several months ago in pastel.  I'd been wanting to try it in oils to see if I could do more glazing and make the colors more luminous. It's one reason I wanted to start painting again - to try this piece again.  I'd begun it before Paris, but today, this is where I went with it...

#76  I love it. THIS is what I’ve been trying to express. THIS is what I want to say. 

This was finished. Then the others happened and I knew there was more to say here. How did I feel when I saw this scene in real life? What was going through me? I didn’t see the grey. I felt the heat, the love, the glory, the beauty. So then this happened. It may or may not be finished. 

Then there’s this which is saying what the photo says but doesn’t show what I love about it. I’m not clear what else to say here, so I’ll leave it for now. It’ll let me know.  

This one went through many iterations today.  Here's how it started:

Here are other iterations:

And the final one.  Maybe.  I'll see how it feels tomorrow.

#79

Obviously this is how I need to be living, what I need to be doing - painting all day, experimenting, listening. trying, looking, playing, delighting in color and texture and form and place. Now to figure out how to make that happen!

I hope your day is feeling equally divinely inspired. 

#3 of 100, Down by the Lake, Early Winter Morning

Today's a busy day for me with appointments from 10:30 AM - 8 PM so I had to get up early to get into the studio for a decent amount of time.  Today I was called to create a painting from a photograph I took in Laugarvatn, a small village on a beautiful lake in southern Iceland on the Golden Circle. When I take groups of people to Iceland, we stay in Laugarvatn at Heradsskolinn, a hotel in an old school building which was designed by Iceland's most famous architect.  I love staying there.  The atmosphere is terrific; the owner, Sverrir, has become like a brother to me; the location is perfect; and the views are stupendous.

This particular picture is from Dec 2018 as I was making my way to Rekjavik so I could leave the country of my heart after 47 days in Iceland.  I stayed in Laugarvatn for a few days visiting with Sverrir and reminding myself why I fell in love with the place.  One morning I walked around the lake as the sun rose and watched the landscape appear: mountains, frozen lake, bushes, marshes grasses, houses, and path.  I walked around the lake as far as the eye can see in this picture but didn't continue on as the ground was too soft and the path too illegible.

Thanks for joining me on my journey of creating 100 Creations in 100 Days!

Down by the Lake, Early Winter Morning
pastel painting
18" x 18"
$375 until 1/14/19, then $550

If you're interested in purchasing this piece, please contact me at SusanSingerArt@msn.com.

#1: Steam Vent; pastel painting, 18" x 18", $375 until 1/12/19

"Steam Vent", pastel, 18" x 18", $375 until 1/12/19, then $550, unframed

In the spirit of putting actions behind my words, I headed straight to the easel after writing the last blog and did a piece that has captivated me ever since I took the photograph.  I call it "Steam Vent".  I took the photograph in Iceland, by the Myvatn Nature Baths, in 2017 when I was there with my friend Zuzana.  I was captivated by the very subtle contrast between the snow and the steam and the sky.

There are many steam vents in Iceland as the island is still forming through volcanic means.  In fact, it's being split apart at the rate of 3 cm/year, part of it heading towards Europe, the other part towards North America.  The good news for Icelanders is that they are able to use this heat to warm their water and their homes and to create fabulous thermal baths all over the country.  Myvatn Nature Baths are the North's answer to the South's Blue Lagoon and a much less crowded, more pleasant experience (for me, at least, as I tend to be a bit introverted and don't enjoy crowds of tourists with selfie sticks in their hands and mud on their faces shouting at each other to "Look, look, look!")

My husband Chris and I went to the Baths at Myvatn this year and enjoyed the warmth and the steam rising off the water.  It was challenging to be in our bathing suits and to have to walk the 100 feet from inside to the hot water outside, but it was worth it!  And getting out wasn't an issue as we were plenty warmed up by then.

I'm including this image in this blog because I think it's a terrific companion piece to the one I did today. The colors are very similar as is the atmospheric subtlety.  This pastel painting was created from a photograph I took one morning in Laugarvatn, Iceland.  It was early December, around 10:30 AM, and the sun was just beginning to rise. There was a beautiful white mist on the lake which the sun couldn't quite burn through.  That created gorgeous light effects, many more of which I intend to paint.  This is also an 18" x 18" pastel painting on sanded paper, $550, unframed.

If you're interested in purchasing anything you see on this blog, you can contact me at SusanSingerArt@msn.com to make arrangements.  I accept checks, credit cards, PayPal, VENMO, and even cash!