Autumn Sounds

Walking on our farm this morning, sounds of shifting season gathered my attention. Hoards of starlings dashed in waves above with restless, impatient calls, and then left quiet in their wake.  Wind rustled leaves of hushed colors, and my own footsteps crunched dried grasses. Usually I'm filled by sight- colors and shapes, but this morning the newness was auditory. From there I went to my studio and worked on pastels, carrying forth the grounding I found outside.

Delivery day!

'Spirit of Joy' by Alice Kelsey.  Oil on Canvas

I'm feeling very tired but very fulfilled - delivered 38 paintings to the HUB Gallery at Penn State for my solo show, which opens May 20th.   There were so many works, and so many big works, that it took four car loads to get them all there today.  Many thanks to my friend, Betsy Whitman, for helping to transport paintings.  It is a really lovely gallery space, and I'm eager to see how the gallery director hangs the show.  I'm not sure they'll all fit!  But I'm very happy with all of the pieces, and think they look well together as a body of related work.

The Making of Mt. Nittany (In Oil and Pastel!)

'Mt. Nittany and Fall Colors', Oil on Linen, 31 x 49 In.

The genesis of this large oil on linen featuring Mt. Nittany includes several metamorphic stages, of experiences and materials evolving together. Looking back through the strata, here's how it came to be:

'Mt. Nittany Across Autumn Fields', Pastel, Private Collection

The pastel above was created on location (on Nixon Rd., near Pine Grove Mills), on a crisp, fall morning. The gold of the soybean field, wind of shifting season, jewels of fall foliage, and interlaced layers of hedgerows drew me in.... I see the traces of these elements in the work itself- something I like very much about plein air works.

'Mt. Nittany from Nixon Rd.", Pastel, Private Collection

Next, back in the studio, I started a new pastel based on the plein air work, with some compositional and color variants (see above)

'Mt Nittany and Fall Colors' In-Progress 1

The expanse of land, and mass of mountain called for a larger scale, and the textures of oil and linen, so I hand-stretched a canvas measuring almost 3 x 4 ft., prepared its surface with four coats of acrylic gesso, and started in with thin washes of oil color, laying in the essential composition (see above). I like the experience of working on a canvas that's almost as big as me- there's room for gesture, and 'paintings within paintings' (sections of the painting that interact which each other). Pretty soon, the painting starts 'talking to me', with one adjustment opening the door for the next. Here's an image of the middle period:

Mt. Nittany and Fall Colors' In-Progress 2

and now this geological survey brings us back to the top of the page, with the completed oil painting! The next leg of the journey resumes on May 16, when 'Mt Nittany and Fall Colors' will be auctioned at the Palmer Museum of Art Gala Event. I'm delighted to have been selected as one of three featured artists at this annual event, and hope that this painting continues on a fruitful journey! For more about the Gala Event, see http://www.palmermuseum.psu.edu/

Solo Show- Final Strokes in Place!

'Uphill to the Ridge'

Yeah! An hour ago, I finished the last stroke of the last painting for my solo show at Penn State which opens in next month! I'm VERY happy with these latest works- bigger and brighter than ever before! Here's a rough still-in-studio photo of the painting which I finished today- one of nine large oils (almost as big as me) and more than thirty works total, which will be in the exhibit ('Passages'- Recent Paintings by Alice Kelsey, The HUB Gallery, Pennsylvania State University- see my website for details www.alicekelsey.com)

To give you a glimpse of the making of this painting, here's some photos of interim stages over several months:

Beginning

I laid in the essential composition and colors with thin oil paint, aiming for shapes and gesture that harmonize and energize.  Once these forces are present, the painting itself gives me ideas about what to tune, what to add to augment it's mood and overall balance....becoming something more 'whole':

Middle stage

And then some more balancing (note lighter and softer color in left sky):

Mid- Late stage

And finally, today I made some small but essential (to me, anyway :)) changes... not sure if they're readily apparent-  I wonder if viewers can find the three changes to this last image:

Final stage

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Walk in the Woods

I have a painting on my easel that I'm waiting to speak to me about where to go next. I looked and wasn't getting 'leadings', so did some art business work (warm by the woodstove!), then went out on a walk. This was just what I needed! It's been a month or so since I walked very far, given the serious cold, and troublesome footing (icy in places, break-through crusted deep snow in others), and now filled back up with natural wonders, I know how much I've missed it. Today I suddenly felt warm sun (despite cold air), and heard cheery songbirds- a turn towards spring! There were lots of animal tracks- deer, squirrel, rabbit, mice, opposum or skunk, and even a bear who had been searching along a hedgerow. I noted dirt-marked snow which gave away several burrows in a wooded hillside, and a place on a steep slope where a small animal had slid on its belly down the hill. Looks to me like animals are waking up, and all of this life was renewing for me!

Blank Canvas

I'm excited to get started on this canvas. It took a few weeks to make it (raw canvas and big stretcher bars and cross brace treked here by UPS, my artist daughter Emma helped me stretch it, and then I prepared it with three coats of gesso.) These preparatory phases are time-consuming, yet I've come to value the process as a step in creating the work- touching the canvas, I admire it's texture, and applying gesso, I'm connecting with the movement and mood of the image-to-be, and start to see it on the surface. I'll let the gesso 'cure' for a few days, and THEN, I get to let loose with springy brushes and lovely color- can't wait!

Paintings within Paintings

Close-up

Entire canvas

Something's stirring my creative spirit with bright warm colors and large scale! I'm surprised and enthused with the 'zing' of color and gesture in my recent oil paintings, and they are taking off to a  larger size than ever before! It's so rewarding when the canvases develop and start to 'talk to me' rather than the other way around.... I see marks and moods that arose as something beyond myself, and seem to have a 'powerful tenderness', something that resonates and lasts. On these larger scale works, there seem to be 'paintings within paintings', as sections of the painting hold me eye with room to explore, and then weave in to the painting as a whole. Very fulfilling!