A year through art, as seen through distinctive and bright paintings. Being the third year writing a form of yearly reflection, I find it interesting how the blog has moved from being about acceptance and healing into my painting practice. An extremely positive change which I find my heart filled with gratitude. I can only imagine what next year will bring my way.
The year began with big promise through bold new paintings I was exploring during the cold winter months in my warm cozy studio. These bold new paintings focused on the relationships of layering two colours in a body of work known as Vivid Colour Paintings. They were an important discovery to begin the year and tested techniques were applied in other paintings throughout the year. It is through discovery that my practice of painting grows. I learned that I was deep in discovery of my own distinctive painting practice.
Early in the year I celebrated my fiftieth birthday, which I thought would be monumental in my life. Age has never been important to me and thus I discovered neither was turning fifty. True Colours was born out of my fifty years of life. Paintings with bright saturated colour exploring relationships of colour. Form was important to symbolize my own experience within the painting as seen through circles as I thought of my life as coming full circle. It turned out it was just a part of my painting discovery and very short lived.
By spring, I was preparing for my first showing of a grouping of my paintings. I used this platform to understand the viewer’s response to my paintings and displayed all three series that I had been working on during my discovery period up until this point. Garden Paintings were the most well received paintings and I was astonished by the sales. It was clear that being in my garden to experience the paintings gave the viewer a sense of reference and understanding. I also learned that non representational art and the use of bold colour like that of the neo-impressionists are equally mysterious to many viewers despite being centuries old. Of course this has not been my personal experience as I was born being different, thinking and seeing differently from others. However, I set out in reflection and thought on my next steps with my discovery.
Autumn brought much deep exploration, bold discovery and mindful time to work on a new body of work. Time which allowed me to begin weaving disciplines to establish a more deeply balanced and distinctively personal painting practice. Written record of mindful moments gathering inspiration in nature within my garden, gave new insight to my paintings. A mindful moment of presence used to inspire a painting. I create art that is unspoken and authentically true to my experience. My boldly distinctive work explores the sensation of being present in a moment through relationships of colour and form discovered in nature. It would appear that 2022 brought me my voice as a painter and the satisfying discovery of this new body of work will come with me as I dive into a new year.
As weather turns into invigorating coldness I am happily met with winter and I plan to set out into nature to gather inspiration in the snow and explore mindful moments more deeply. Observing, capturing and documenting ever changing transcendence in nature, mindful moments of change often hidden from the ordinary human eye. Exploring in comparison human transformation through healing as my healing body mimics the pace of nature, although ever changing it is often invisible to anyone other than myself. A unique experience with transcendence captured in a distinctively bold painting.
As I begin a more goal oriented painting practice I look forward to achieving some small achievements giving my life more purpose. My studio has been reorganized and set up to get right into painting and writing in the new year, something I needed help doing three years ago when I wrote my first blog. My paintings have become a part of me with each new body of work reaching a little deeper within. I look forward to see where my paint and brushes take me in a new year of exploration and observation of mindful moments. What an inspiring and thrilling way to bring in a new year.
Jane Holden - Art exploring elusive realities. 