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presents
Friday, August 1st, 2008
5 - 9 pm
113 N. San Francisco, Suite 211
Flagstaff, AZ
Me dear and close friend, Molly Holland, will be hosting me in her art studio. She will concurrently have a show at Black Hound Gallerie, presenting her beautiful artwork.
I did a lot of painting last week and I feel that my hands are getting a bit restrained, which, for me is not a good thing. It's important to keep my hands pretty loose because I like those contour lines to really flow, whether painting or drawing. The best way I've found to do this is to sketch and sketch and sketch... which is so much fun, because that is my first love: drawing. The other cool thing about keeping a practice of drawing is that it releases lots of thoughts and ideas which may translate later to painting. The following are a group of sketches from the last couple of days.
In the next post, I will send out my invitation to y'all for my August show in Flagstaff... still working out the details and graphics and such. It's fun to plan and I've kept any stress at bay by doing a bit of work on it each day and letting it flow.
Another exciting bit of news is that my local events newspaper, Flag Live, did a cover story on my art and it went out yesterday! I think they did a wonderful job and I'm really honored to have worked with Flag Live's nice folks. ;-)
Hope you all are having a great day and enjoying the summer while it lasts. Here in Northern Arizona, monsoon is in full swing, so the weather feels more like San Diego. I don't mind that one single bit!
Take care!
do you know, that the surrealist SALVADOR DALÍ did not just do the paintings.
he also was a great designer.
here are some of his art works also suitable to use into every day life ...
((((still up-to-date!)))))
A sketch I did a while back has been tickling my dreams, floating in and out of my mind at the oddest times... I finally up and painted it this weekend while the little ones napped and hubby worked on college courses. This is yet another one that was kind of born from thinking about this existential life, how things can trap us, hurt us, shock us. How those very difficult turns in life can actually be the beginning of another more beautiful path if we just continue to be honest and see things for what they are. Like the layers of an onion, I think honesty and transparency of character can evolve day to day with each new bit of understanding we have about humanity. I know this is a very meandering post, but that is kind of how I am the last few days. These thoughts just flow in and out in a rather stream of consciousness sort of way. I know we are the same on many levels, you and I, though we may have different paths, interests, life stories - I think we all get broken and put back together in some way or another in the course of living. I think of these breaking down/rebuilding times as "interruptions" in life and how they are critical times of learning and loving, maybe being (brutally) honest. I can think of events that have left me nothing to learn or feel in the moment of happening, and so I buried my head, wrung my hands. But each new day has a way of bringing more illumination. The idea that life is actually working on me with its own life force is interesting and something I want to think upon for while. It's there that I feel a sense of the divine.
"Reconstruct", 12 3/4" x 10", watercolor combined with ink and pastel.
I have also begun reading The Artist's Way. I'll have to post more on this later.
These waters in life are very dynamic, wonderful, strange to me. All of it. Incredible. Rich in experiences. I love being able to ruminate while painting... the complexity of life never bores.
Here are several new works.
"Deserted and found", 10 1/4" x 7", watercolor combined with ink and pastel. This is a study for future paintings.
"Lightly we were walking", 10" x 12 3/4", watercolor combined with ink and pastel.
barcelona and gaudí.
i decided to go to barcelona soon. I’ve never been there, but i heard a lot of good things about this city in catalonia. barcelona offers many different things. There’s art all around, gorgeous architecture, many museums, spanish and catalonia-lifestile , the mediterranean sea, beaches, bars, restaurants, tapas, design, historical buildings, dalí nearby and much more. they say barcelona has a perfect and very active night live – the best in whole europe. when i started to read about my new holiday destination there was one thing i was more fascinated of: "gaudí". a few of his work for my and your pleasure and regarding seeing all of this live soon ... here we go ... barcelona i'm cooooommmiiiiing...... by the way, is there anybody here on vox, who is able to send me some individual, special and secret tips where to go in barcelona?... something you don't find in those known city guides???????????????????
about antoni gaudí (b. reus, spain 1852; d. barcelona, spain 1926) the son of a coppersmith, antoni gaudí was born in reus, spain in 1852. he studied at the escola superior d'arquitectura in barcelona and designed his first major commission for the casa vincens in barcelona using a gothic revival style that set a precedent for his future work. over the course of his career, gaudí developed a sensuous, curving, almost surreal design style which established him as the innovative leader of the spanish art nouveau movement. with little regard for formal order, he juxtaposed unrelated systems and altered established visual order. gaudí's characteristically warped form of gothic architecture drew admiration from other avant-garde artists. although categorized with the art nouveau, gaudí created an entirely original style. he died in barcelona in 1926.
I am now finished with this painting:
"I don't know you yet, but I will love you forever", watercolor with ink and pastel, 140 lb archival paper
16" x 16 3/4".
Everybody looks for a label. I would like to be known as a painter one who painted what he saw while wandering around on his journey.
Don Sahli made the decision to become a professional artist at a very early age. By the time he was 17 years old, galleries in Texas and New Mexico were selling his paintings. Sahli has earned his living as a professional artist all his adult life. Presently, his work is represented by galleries in Colorado, North Carolina, New Mexico, Wyoming and Texas.
When I look at a painting, I want it to bring me back to when I was on the scene. I want it to convey the drama and emotion that first captured my attention, the atmosphere, and the soul of the place.
Sahli’s work contains stylistic echoes of the Russian masters, particularly evident in his uninhibited use of color, his stern originality and unique vitality. As the last apprentice to the Russian colorist, Sergei Bongart, Sahli sustains an important artistic legacy, one passed from Ilya Repin, the fountainhead of all modern Russian painting, to Nicolai Fechin, to Peter Kotov, to Sergei Bongart to Don Sahli.
My teacher taught, his teacher taught, and I wanted to keep this tradition alive and give something back.
In 1995, carrying on the legacy of his teacher, Sahli opened Sahli School of Art in Evergreen, Colorado. He lives with his wife, Cindy and their two sons, in their mountain home near the school.
Q - What medium or mediums do you work with?
A - I am an oil painter - on canvas or board - depending on the
size of the painting and where I am painting - studio or plein air.
Q - How long have you been an artist? How did you get started?
A - I have been an artist all my life. I sold my first painting at age 14 or 15. When I was 17, I took my work to a gallery in Taos, NM, the gallery director accepted it and sold my work for several years. I have continued to show in galleries around the country since that time....
Please click here to read the rest of this Artist Interview....
