FLUID ENDURANCE

 

FLUID ENDURANCE

acrylic on panel, 24"x16", painted a few years ago

FLUID ENDURANCE

 photo on a small easel

FLUID ENDURANCE, acrylic on panel, 24"x16", from a few years ago. What does it mean? Your guess is as good as mine, ha ha. I guess that she is having a spiritual experience. The circular motion and the integration of the head with the sky illustrates expanded consciousness. I use art to communicate the explorations of my mind. E-mail me to purchase.

Resting on Couch

 

Resting on Couch

limited edition of 50, signed, archival inkjet print, 1/2021

Well, here is a picture of a woman relaxing comfortably.  A bit of a change in subject matter, because usually my women figures are very active.  They dance, they fly, they do yoga.  I guess it is time to take a rest after all that exercise.  She looks peaceful and contented.  

The colors are rich and mellow.  I think that they are yummy, like a chocolate covered cherry.  The woman is depicted with minimal graceful lines.  

I create digital works similar to the way that I create with paint and canvas.  Using digital brushes I create lines and texture that show, "the mark of the maker".  The composition of the painting creates a large "X", with the blue throw balancing the diagonal line of the woman and the window.

You may order a print by clicking on my email address in the column to the right and leaving me a message stating the print that you want.  Prints, 8.5x11", are $60.00. An acrylic on canvas original painting may be commissioned, write to me about the size that you want and I will email you back about the price. Your commissioned painting will be very similar, but not exactly like this digital image. 

Happy New Year!!  Surely 2021 will be better than last year.  Stay healthy.

A Young Daughter of the Picts

A Young Daughter of the Picts

Limited edition of 50, signed, archival inkjet print, 12/2020

This image was inspired by a friend, Jesse Poinboeuf's, post of a picture on Facebook.  The original picture is assumed to have been painted in about the 1580's by Jacque Le Moyne de Morgues, but the facts are a bit muddled.  Previously the painting was attributed to another artist and a earlier time. The original picture is an imaginary image, painted to represent ancient (yes, ancient to the people of the 1500's), Scottish people who were called Picts.  It is an interesting history that you may want to google.  Scholars surmise that the image illustrates a Pict that the artist assumed was  similar to tattooed North American Natives. The flowers of the original picture are flowers that were popular in England in the 1500's, adding anachronism to the muddle of  history.  It is a really fun, mysterious image.

 I depicted flowers that are mostly imaginary, not specific species.  

Seeing the image on Facebook, I found it to be somewhat similar to the images that I have been creating.  So, I used it as inspiration for this digital image.  I may also make an acrylic painting of the image, but who knows, I am never sure what comes next.   

I was motivated to paint this  woman, why?,  to represent beautiful, ideal feminine qualities.  She carries a sword, making her a "dont mess with me" woman.  

And, oh yea,  I added a flower/womb with a baby in the belly.

close up

 A Daughter of the Picts

Attributed to Jacque Le Moyne de Morgues

circa 1580's

10"x 7.5", mixed media

 

 

Tree Woman, Pomona

Archival inkjet print, signed and numbered, edition of 50

11/17/2020

 

Pomona

Limited edition of 50, archival ink jet print, 11/2/2020

Sometimes, I wish that I was a tree.  No, I dont, for I am contented with my life as a human.  But, trees are some of my best friends.  The big trunked oaks around my home, pine trees, fruit trees, I could go on and on about my love for trees.  

There is a large oak here, must be six feet in diameter and i dont know how tall, 60 feet, 80 feet tall?  This is Grandmother tree.  Sometimes, I leave her offerings in a knot of the trunk.  

Another tree is Great Grandmother tree.  In the eighteen years that I have been here she has suffered from decrepitude of old age.  Large branches have fallen off during storms. She is covered with trumpet vines, embellished with orange flowers. The trunk is hollow, some critter lives in there.  An armadillo?  She perseveres, hanging onto life, in the middle of a mown field, between two creeks.  She has immense character, unusual beauty. 

Another tree is Dragon Tree.  A swamp Tupelo that has a 20 foot long, undulating, dragon like root at the edge of the creek.  

Tree women,  women integrated with trees, have tended to reappear in my art practice for decades.  

Pomona is a sacred wood nymph in ancient Roman mythology.  There were sacred groves of fruit trees dedicated to her in ancient Rome.

Floating Couple with Baby

Floating Couple with Baby

acrylic on canvas, 16x24", 2019

Floating Couple with Baby 

limited edition of 50, archival inkjet print, 2019

close up

 Shuffle into the Sunset

acrylic on paper, 16x24", 2019

There is a narrative to these pictures.  The deer is a guardian angel to the baby.  The pictures glimpse phases of life from loving couple, to baby, to death.  I made a folding brochure with images similar to these.

Guardian Angel

Inkjet print, signed, archival, limited edition

 

Three Point Yoga

 Three Legged Dog

photoshop, 9/15/2020

In Sankrit this yoga posture is named, " Tri Pada Adho Mukha Svanasana".  

I think that this style of figure shows "tribal" influence.

I took yoga classes for about twenty, twenty five, years, from the 70's into the 90's.  I seldom do yoga sessions now.  But, at times, I am aware of my body, like when I am waiting for the coffee to brew, and do Mountain Pose, just standing straight and balanced with deep breathing.  I used to do Mountain Pose while waiting in lines.

I can still touch my toes.  I was never able to do a head stand without propping my feet against the wall.  The yoga practice that i did is still benefiting me.  I think that it taught me more self awareness, and more awareness in general.  The practice taught me what little poise that I possess.

These days my exercise is gardening.  This is a nice work out for my age.  Bending, stooping, hoeing, shoveling.  Sometimes i think that i should do more yoga, then i think, that i should not should on myself.

Silver Creek Nature

The Nature of Silver Creek

Egrets and Creek

photograph, photoshopped, digital, 2020

Water Ripples, 2020

 photograph, Photoshop,

signed, archival, limited edition print

Blue Heron

trail cam photograph, Photoshop,

signed, archival, limited edition, ink jet print

My dog, Harpo

 on a trail by the creek

Trail cam photo and Photoshop

                                                                      Doe on Sandbar  

                                                                       Trail cam photo,

                                                              worked up with Photoshop,

signed, archival, limited edition inkjet print

                                                                    

Wisteria in Full Bloom

Photograph and Photoshop

I am so blessed to live in this  Louisiana jungle and share it with friends and family.  We have trails through the woodlands and swamp. I am not exaggerating when I call it a jungle.   Nature is potent, growing in wild tangles.  There are oak trees that are 6' in diameter and I guess 60', 80 feet tall.  This exuberant nature feeds my spirit with joy. 

Nature supports my art creations.  I make art almost every day.  Nature and art creation nourish my spirit.  I can feel the peaceful flowing soul energy of Mother Nature when I walk the trails.  

Wildlife here includes:  many deer, wild boar, beaver, armadillo, raccoon, rabbits, squirrels, frogs that throb the air with their songs, multicolored lizards, salamander, and box turtle.  Water turtle and fish in the creek. 

 A symphony of birds, including blue heron, large and small egret, king fisher, owls, hawks, a large and a small variety of woodpeckers.  The hummingbird feeders bring amazing, tiny, jewel colored birds, that zoom swiftly among the trees.  

And Snakes, most are not dangerous. Cotton mouth moccasins are rarely seen.  I feel an adrenaline fear rush and back away slowly.  I tell the children to watch where they put their feet and hands. 

The creek feeds into the Bogue Falaya, which flows into the Pearl River, and Honey Island Swamp.  A relatively, sparsely populated green corridor runs more than a hundred miles into the Gulf.  I have examined it on Google Earth.  It is a migration corridor for birds and other critters.  Eye witnesses claim to have seen Big Foot in Honey Island Swamp and along the Pearl.  I am on the look out, but have not seen him yet.  

Two inch benign banana spiders make webs that shimmer in the dappled sun light.  Occasionally, in the spring, mosquitoes bite.  Graceful butterflies of many colors.  Dragonflies that are black, accented with iridescent pthalo blue wings.

Such beauty, an embarrassment of riches.

The children like to kayak to a sandbar where we swim.  Sitting on the sandbar we hunt for fossils, agate and Native American artifacts.

We planted moso bamboo in 2006.  This plant can GROW!  It covers maybe half an acre now.  Sassafras, (historically used to make rootbeer and file for gumbo ), grows as a second story under the tall bamboo.

It took me a long time to get here.  I grew up moving around with my Air Force Dad. I moved around quite a bit as an adult.  Trying out different spots.  When I got close to retirement, I searched for my forever home.  

January 1, 2002, my family and I tent camped on our new land. My forever home.

I lived in a tent while my sons, brother, nephew, and friends, built the house.  I moved lightly into the house before it was closed in.  A bird nested in the woodwork framing.  We sat in the area that was to be the living room, the walls were up, but had no windows or doors.  Devoted Mama Bird flew over our heads, back and forth to feed the gaping beaks of tiny babies. 

I self identified as an Artist in 1980.  My family also built me a studio.  I create almost everyday, following an evolving stream of inspiration.  A few themes migrate into my work at different times.  Primarily nature and luminous women. I am a spiritual seeker, art maps out my seeker path.

 I am blessed with a satisfying way to experience life on earth.

Three Graces, Cubismo

Three Graces, Cubismo

archival ink jet print

Three Graces, Exploded

Three Graces, canvas paintings

Three Graces, Painterly Realistic

acrylic on canvas, 48"x 36", 6/2020

Three Graces, Crystallized

acrylic on canvas, 48"x 36", 6/2020

Three Graces, Streaming

archival ink jet print, 6/2020

Yoga, Square, Centrifuge

archival ink jet print, 7/2020

Yoga with Pelicans

archival ink jet print, 7/2020

One thing leads to another.  "Yoga with Pelicans" has for a background a photograph of an acrylic on paper painting, that was worked up in Photoshop and then used with a digital image of yoga woman.

"Three Graces, Streaming", is a continuation of a suite that I have been working on for about six months.  Graceful women have shown  up in my created images for more than a couple of decades.  Since the 70's, at least.  I have a steady stream of creativity with one thing leading to another.  The images evolve, the women change their style, from relatively realistic to abstract.  From the pure love of the Christian Mary variations, to the strength of warrior woman.  The Greek Artemis and Roman Diana, are examples of warrior women that have occurred in the creative stream from as far back as the human race can remember. Why do I do this, I wonder.  I want to create an impression of ideal femininity for myself and for viewers.

Horse Sampler,#1, for Dave, realistic

digital, 1/2020

Horse Sampler,#2, abstracted

digital, 1/2020

Dave asked me to make a picture of a horse.  I puttered around a while before deciding to do it.  I set my creative intention to be realistic, because that is what Dave likes.  After making the realistic horse in Photoshop I wanted to abstract the picture.  So i made up some loose guidelines.  I thought of diamond shapes, I thought about Harlequin patterns.  This was a lot of fun.  

Today, I worked on another pair of pictures, but with female figures instead of horses.  The realistic figures are almost done and i started abstracting them today. I am exercising my style tools, and doing something rather new.  I follow my muse.  I keep the art interesting, changing my guidelines, a bit here and a bit there.  I never get bored photo-shopping and painting.

The next thing that I want to do with the horse, is to blow him up.  I am excited to see how that will look. 

If that is not enough, working on four px's at once, I am also doing another thing even more out of my usual zone.  I have made some painted drift wood sculptures that looks fantastic.  I need to buy a new camera to get quality of photos of the sculptures.  Been doing the research on that.

"Nike Popped"

Close up of "Nike Popped"

 

Visible Woman, Enlivened

Photoshop image,  24M,  10/2018

 

close up

 

 

 



 



Visible Woman, Enlivened

 

Visible Woman is the name of a toy.  It is a model figure illustrating simple pregnant female anatomy, that a child can assemble.  The toy has been around for maybe fifty years.  Not so long ago, and even today, there was, still is, a taboo against teaching a young female about her own body.  A human can drive a car, without knowing how an internal combustion engine works.  A girl can run and jump without even a hint of knowledge about muscles, bones and blood circulation.  However, when the storms of adolescence make landfall, it would comfort her, and help her to guide her life, to know about the tubes and folds of flesh and the cat 5 hormones that roar and whirl wind her mind and body.  It would help her to know about the cycles of the moon. 

 

 

Sex, Sex, Sex.  Sexual images are everywhere, enticing us to buy, buy, buy. The choices for a girl range from cloistered nun to Fellini orgies.  She can be a saint or a slut or anywhere in between. The traditional route features marriage and donating her body to incubate infants.  Each human has a personal path.  Not all decisions are made by reasoning,  however, information helps. 

 

 

A human girl needs level, healthy information to make informed choices.  But still there is a gibberish babble, a confusion of signals that make understanding difficult. 

 

I have been creating images that reference the Visible Woman, because, I, a saggy old grey lady, I am still trying to sort it all out. 

To see more of the Visible Woman go to:

 https://janetboydart.blogspot.com/2018/06/gold-fish-mashup-suite.html

 

 

 

 

 



The Forest is My Cathedral

 

The Forest Cathedral

Digital image, 2017

 

 

I have a deep need for nature.  Walking in the forest gives me an elevated feeling.  Petty concerns melt away and I feel a reverence for the earth. 

 

A tree has a million leaves.  Each leaf has a beautiful design of branching veins.  If you look at the leaf microscopically there are a million perfect cells.  How can this happen?  The detail is staggering.  I find it difficult to explain this rationally and must resort to metaphysical wonderings.