10 x 10 Exhibition

Happy New Year! It has been a refreshing holiday with friends and family. Now that the festivities are over and I am caught up on my sleep, it is good to be in the studio once again, putting colors down on paper.  Yesterday, my well of India ink formed a large bubble and popped! I wiped off my face and shirt, then noticed a few droplets had landed on my composition. It seemed sort of fitting to have a little explosion in the wake of 2012.

The very small painting below was completed for the upcoming group show, “The 10×10 Exhibition” at the Coconino Center for the Arts, 2300 North Fort Valley Road, Flagstaff, AZ. It happens on Saturday, January 21st, 6pm – 8 pm and runs till February 22nd. It will showcase over 100 artists who have taken on the challenge of producing an original work within the confines of a ten-inch by ten-inch space. You can visit here for more information. This is “Bask” , created in watercolor, ink and pastel.

Above We Gather, Below a Tide

This is my contribution for the Illustration Friday theme “Separated”. Titled “Above We Gather, Below a Tide”, watercolor, ink and pastel.

Drawings in ink.

More drawings and paintings can be viewed at charmagnecoe.com.

Along the Mantic Spring

Last week I completed a new painting. Here is “Along the Mantic Spring”. It was composed in watercolor, ink and pastel. You can also view it at my website, charmagnecoe.com.

Distilled memories. Internal vistas.

Perplexity is often the preface for creativity.  An invitation to mystery can be a volatile experience.

Happy Holidays! If you use the code 15COEJOY, you will receive 15% off any of my artwork at Etsy. Now through December 15th. Enjoy! Below are some of my prints that are available.

Persist

As I wrote in a past blog entry, one of my paintings was thought to be finished, but it was not. Here it is now professionally photographed and renamed, Ascend.

Drawings.


This unfinished sketch is part of an ongoing theme that persists in my heart… I’ve painted and repainted many variations. This is the closest I’ve come yet and I hope to attempt it in painting.

Here is my submission for Illustration Friday’s:  Silent.

Lastly, a song by Piana, “Beginning”.

Reveal and Billows

These are two recently completed paintings. Both are composed with watercolor, ink and pastel. They can also be viewed at charmagnecoe.com. This is “Reveal”.

And… “Billows”.

Hope all of you had a lovely All Hallows’ Eve. I was an angel and my boys were ninjas and now there’s more candy than we know what to do with.

Ascent

This is my newest painting, Ascent, 12 15/16″ x 15″, watercolor, ink and pastel.

Update, 11/1/11

In an unexpected turn of events, though I had initially felt Ascent was finished, I woke up the other day to realize there were other elements which needed to be included. I wasn’t sure what. Then I became discouraged. So I waited… and yesterday it came to me while mid-conversation with a friend. The newly finished work is now at my photographer’s studio. I can’t wait to share it in an upcoming post. I wonder how many other artists out there have the same experience. This has been a good lesson to me. Authenticity and honesty is important in the process; one must be willing to let go of personal past perceptions if a new creative thought is trying to break through. Keep fluid.

Emerging

I have a small-ish studio and it contains much of the necessary tools I need, but that is not where I’ve been. I have spent more creative drawing hours in the bucolic Flagstaff outdoors. I continue to draw abstracted landscapes and figures with combinations of fine and bold textures. Some of my figures are somewhat unfinished or a bit raw. Life in-process is a theme I revisit a lot and so, sometimes my drawings have left-off edges or dissolve in places. Years ago while in Florence, Italy, I was completely transfixed by Michelangelo’s ‘unfinished’ Slaves sculptures…  they were sublime in their state of emergence from the anchoring stone. That experience has stayed with me since. Below are my most recent drawings .

This drawing is designated as my submission to Illustration Friday’s theme, Hibernate. Just so ya know, my work is also viewable at my website:  charmagnecoe.com

A fragment of a painting study. It contains a beast that resurfaces in several other drawings and paintings.

Glow

This is my weekly submission to Illustration Friday’s theme:  Mesmerizing. It is titled Glow and is dedicated to my dear husband, David. 5 1/2″ x 6″, watercolor, ink and pastel.

I bring myself disguised

I bring myself disguised, watercolor, ink and pastel, small painting. Created for Illustration Friday’s topic:  Disguise.

Some drawings!

 

Substance

I officially have two boys in school and for the first time, my home is quiet in the morning. I have intentions to elongate my painting hours. It was easy this morning to catch an idea for Illustration Friday’s weekly theme: Influence. My mind is focused on the tension between maternal nurturing, influence, freedom and forbearance. Creating and letting go. The tension of those things is a rich substance. This little illustration was created in watercolor, ink and pastel… like a micro version of my larger works.

Not unrelated… While at Mission Bay this summer, something caught my eye. There, protruding from the wet sand was an object resembling the Venus of Willendorf, a fertility figurine. I love to look at it. It reminds me of how important feminine divinity has been through the aeons and what small part I play in my existence.

Drawings from last week. Ink and paper.