"Bleached" In Progress

What a beautiful summer/fall day here in NYC! Ean and I took a shady walk up Central Park West with my Aunt Laurie, stopping in our favorite coffee bean store for a bag of the requisite pumpkin spice beans and looking in on the baby boutiques for fall and winter clothes. 

This week I'm looking forward to...(1) getting out of the house more and taking some walks, (2) as well as finishing up my Fall 2017 Collection of paintings entitled "Bleached" and inspired by my travels in Arizona and New Mexico.

Thanks for all the positive feedback on last week's Inspiration Blog ~ I loved hearing from you about what you found interesting or cool!

This week, as I've started actually painting, I'm getting inspired by these wedding and photo booth backdrops I've painted.

photo: Wandermore Photography

(PS These are SO FUN to paint and make really unique wedding/party decor - and a cool keepsake - so keep me in mind if you or someone you know is party planning :D )

photo: Clare Mullins Photography

I love the abstract water-colory look (even though they're all acrylic) and the gold accents.

I'm going to marry the approach and brushstrokes of the large backdrops with the colors of my Southwest inspiration to create this Fall 2017 Collection. And since I've been experimenting more and more with the heavy and aggressive marks of the palette knife, I'll of course be incorporating that technique too.

Below I'm sharing a few "in progress" behind the scenes shots of what I'm working on:

"Palm and Sky"

"Palm and Sky"

"Sun and Shadows"

 Stay tuned for how these and the rest turn out....and I'd love to know what you think so far!

xo

Hannah

Breastfeeding As Meditation And Inspiration...Fall 2017

As I Half Fell Asleep Breastfeeding In The Dark One Night, I Clearly Saw The Paintings I Had Yet To Create Come To Me One By One......

I'm Back!

Kind of....

Baby Ean was born on July 28th at 2:42am, totally healthy but rather small at 4 lbs 14 oz.

He's a month old now (!!!!) and already closing in on 8 lbs. We're all happy and healthy if not tired and stressed as new parents are. (Is he eating enough? Is he sleeping enough? Is he sleeping too much?)

Work-wise, I'm enjoying this break and the potential to be present with Ean. At first, I would put something on TV to wake me up and distract me during our multiple nighttime feedings, but more recently, I've kept the TV off, the lights dim and paid closer attention to the silence and Ean's soft noises (and sometimes really loud screaming).

It was during one of these feedings a few weeks ago when I was kind of dozing in and out that a wave of images washed over me gently. I could picture all the paintings I wanted to create for my Fall 2017 Southwest Collection.

The painting inspiration often happens like this ~ lying in bed falling asleep, or in some other half waking place ~ colors and compositions come to me and I can just clearly see what I should try to make. If I'm awake enough perhaps I'll jot down some notes and hope that I'll remember what it was in the AM. (Remember that Seinfeld where Jerry writes down a joke on a napkin in the night and then the next day he can't remember at all what the joke was supposed to be and in the end it was pretty much nothing? So true!)

For instance, this painting had been bouncing around my brain for at least six months before I actually painted it. And actually at the start, I was thinking I would paint it much much larger:
 

As I write up this email (after Ean has finished his 2am meal and is making soft sleep sounds in his bassinet), I'm filled with the happiness that comes when you are sitting in darkened silence with nothing to do and nowhere to be. Just breathing.

This week I'm going to start painting what's in my head and hope it translates from inspiration to canvas. I'm calling this Fall 2017 Collection "Bleached"...find out why and see some pretty inspiration photos over in this  post.

Okay, back to bed. Good night/morning!
xo,
Hannah

Loving The Southwest In The Fall...Get Inspired!

I'm back!! Well kind of...

I'm still 100% in the new mommy fog, loving time spent nestling with baby Ean who turned 1 month on August 28th. But in the wee hours of morning, feeding Ean silently in the dark, about to fall back asleep myself, I saw behind my eyelids the paintings I need to create.

After our babymoon to Arizona this spring and two prior trips to the Southwest (New Mexico in 2015 and Arizona in 2016...such a lovely warm, Zika-free vacation area), I had known I wanted to paint the arid but also surprisingly lush environment there.

What struck me most about our most recent trip was the air. How it created a bit of a film. The word that immediately came to mind as we were in the cab from the airport to the hotel was "Bleached".

The sand, the very pale blue sky, the spiky palm leaves - washed out green - and the pink, purple and green cactus clusters. The sunsets were soft yellows and greys, not vibrant rainbows of color.

But then I started noticing the flowers - not big, but bright! Orange, red, purple, yellow. Drops of color strewn across twiggy branches.

In the early morning of that baby meditation, I saw the combinations of colors I wanted to pull together to create this Fall 2017 "Bleached" Collection of paintings. I also saw how I wanted to movement of the brush to feel - how the composition would come together.

For now I'll share some of my inspiration photos. I look forward to putting brush to canvas and sharing some "in process" work in the coming weeks. Forgive me if I'm slightly MIA, I'm preoccupied enjoying this baby oasis.

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