Featured Artist

Erin Buckley
Welcome to Erin the first artist featured in my new Friday series.  Each Friday, I will be sharing the work of another artist.  Erin Buckley is a Richmond, Virginia based artist.  She works with acrylic, oil, and watercolor.  Erin is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame, where she studied Philosophy and English.  She completed two years of post-graduate service working with young adults with developmental disabilities in Portland, Maine, and with the elderly in Chicago.  To see more of Erin's wonderful work, visit her blog Thin Places. 

"First Stanza of T.S. Eliot's 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,'" acrylic on canvas, 16"x20", Erin Buckley, 2010

A number of your paintings feature quotations and poems.  In the process of composing paintings, are you often inspired by literature?

I think it's a way I indulge myself since I've been out of school, by looking back through some old books!  It allows me to delve back into the text.  I got a positive response to the T.S. Eliot piece from a man at a Farmer's market, who commented, "you don't often see Prufrock like that, do you?"  It pleased me to think that he would stop, read, and think about the poem.  I think it would also be fun to illustrate poems without the words to see if the scene looks vaguely familiar to anyone, if he or she had formed a similar mental image.

"Chi-town Skyline," acrylic on canvas, 8"x10", Erin Buckley, 2010

Who are some artists that inspire you?

Norman Rockwell, for one.  Realistic art always mesmerizes me, and he has a way of capturing such tangible scenes, along with the particular emotion of a moment--fear of a schoolboy, comfort of a homecoming, nervousness, energy at a boxing ring.  I also love the old still lifes of Dutch realists', seeing those wet oysters, and that knife resting on the edge of the table beckoning you to pick it up and finish cutting that cheese block.

"Mother Teresa's 5-finger Prayer, 'As often as you did it to one of the least of my brothers and sisters...'" acrylic on canvas, 8"x10", Erin Buckley, 2010

What is the most interesting object you've used as a canvas?

Vinyl suitcases from my grandparents' attic.  I've transformed one into a cheeseburger, and one into a watermelon.  When I've put them out at shows, the most common response is some variation of, "you wouldn't lose that one at the airport, would you?"

"Bandstands and Sailboats," acrylic on canvas, 11"x14," Erin Buckley, 2010

Thanks so much Erin.  I look forward to continuing to follow your work!

What do you think of Erin's work?

Wedding Invitation

Cherry Blossoms

This is the second wedding invitation, to be shared in my new Wednesday series.  Each week I will feature a new invitation in my expanding collection, which can be viewed at my Etsy shop. 

I took this photograph of a cherry tree blossoming along Washington Place, in Baltimore, as I walked to work on a spring day in 2006.  There is always something magical about the budding and blossoming of spring trees, but I always found cherry blossoms to have a certain charm that makes than more special than the average tree specimen.  It was that enchantment that inspired me to design this wedding invitation featuring Cherry Blossoms. 

The delicate nature of the cherry blossom echoes the delicate fabrics of wedding garments, table linens, tiered cakes.  The hopefulness of new blossoms in spring seems poetically aligned with the celebration of a new union.     

Have you seen the cherry blossoms blooming in Washington D.C. or Japan? 

Aran Islands, Ireland

During a recent trip to Ireland, I spent two days on Inishmore, the largest of the three Aran Islands.   The islands are located at the mouth of Galway Bay, on the west coast of Ireland.  The islands have a history of attracting and inspiring writers and artists.  I can see why.  I found the sparsely inhabited island ideal for meandering about on a bike, for marveling at the natural surroundings, and for inspiring painted work.  I made this quick sketch painting while sitting on a beach in the sun.  It was interesting to experiment with pen and watercolor painting, though this non-permanent pen was not the ideal implement (it was, however, the only one I was able to find for purchase on the island).


I'll be posting photos from the Aran Islands on my public facebook page tomorrow!


Have you visited the Aran Islands?  What did you think of them or of this painting?

Coming soon: More frequent posts!

Starting in November (Monday!), I will be attempting to post to this blog four times a week.  I will post on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday mornings.  Mondays you can stop by to see a new original painting,  Wednesdays I'll be posting a new wedding invitation as I work to expand my collection, Fridays I'll be featuring the work of another artist, and Sundays I'll post about other projects I'm undertaking. 

I'll also be changing the blog name to more accurately reflect the new schedule and blog features.  I hope you will check back to see all the new changes.

Belmont Harbor IV

 

I love the drama of this scene: the most easterly trees bathed in the waning evening light, the other trees casting strong silhouettes against the vibrant sky, a glimpse of the skyline amid the trees, and whimsical clouds floating out of the frame.  What brilliant melding of the natural and the man-made!

Belmont Harbor III

This painting is another in the series of paintings of the stretch of lake path between Montrose and Belmont Harbors.  It features the weeping willows which dance along the edge of the path.  The late morning light reflects brilliantly what Carl Sandburg calls "...a blue burst of lake, long lake waves breaking under the sun, on a spray-flung curve of shore..."

Belmont Harbor II

This is another in my small series paintings of Lake Michigan from Belmont Harbor.  I am often drawn back to water as a subject matter.  My blog address (waterpaintings) was initially selected because I had once planned to paint only water for one year.  I found that my creative energies were drawn to a variety of projects and I strayed from that initial idea, but I continue to be interested in painting water.  It is a subject matter which seems eager to be poetic--constant, yet unpredictable, beyond our control, sometimes serene, sometimes angry.