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The abstract direction in my process is pulling me into more open-spaced territory as you will see with my latest work. I also continue adding new mediums to the recipe. This painting was started by taping a large piece of Saunders Waterford 200 lb cotton watercolor paper to my studio wall, then making large markings with a charcoal twig (my son created for me as a nature gift) and free-feeling loops and slashes of pastel. I like how the different figurative components in this piece appear unique to themselves but connect and interact with one another to write the story. Some of my other pieces are more saturated and dense compositions, but this work contains larger breaths of white space in between the delicate shapes and has a similar approach I use in my drawings. I hope you enjoy.
Flesh the Meadow, 2018, mixed media, watercolor, ink, pastel, acrylic and charcoal, 21″ x 29″. It is available here.
Here are some details:
What a great turnout and support of Free Arts Art from the Heart Art Auction. This fundraiser for Free Arts for Abused Children of Arizona was presented by Edward Jones, with featured artist Fred Tieken, and more than 70 other Arizona artists. Thank you so very much for generously attending and your online bidding! It is important to see our community coming together for our AZ children! If you are curious about the many other ways you can contribute to Free Arts, be sure to go to their website. Here are some pictures of the event which took place at Saks 5th Ave in Phoenix, AZ last last Saturday, April 7th, 4:30 – 7:00.
Here is a small detail picture from a work in progress… creatures are tucked here and there among the flora brambles. Some are sleeping. Some are curiously approaching each other, or you.
If you don’t already, also follow me at Instagram to see more projects and snippets of creative process. 
https://www.instagram.com/charmagnecoe/
My work is always available at my website and Royse Contemporary in Scottsdale, AZ.
Hello! Spring is officially upon us! I’m enjoying signs of budding life, homemade lemonade with my kids, cool morning runs and new inspirations.
After many years of dedicating my creative process to growing skills with watercolor, ink and pastel, I’ve recently begun to include additional media in my paintings. It is exhilarating to plunge into other directions. I’m also taking an even more immediate, direct approach using abstraction with surrealism. A most recent work includes cotton thread, colored pencil and markings from charcoal twigs my youngest son made for me as a surprise gift one afternoon. It delights me to create artworks that come not only from within myself, but that are a collection of efforts and energies all around me.
Below is my brand new painting with detail pictures, The Drops 54321, 28″ x 21″, watercolor, ink, charcoal and thread. Also here.
If you have not signed up for my email newsletter, please consider it! This month through the beginning of April I am offering a subscriber only…
Spring Special
On All Paintings and Drawings!
Signing up is also another to keep abreast of my upcoming exhibitions and recent developments. And it won’t clutter up your inbox because I only send one or two a month. 🙂
Here are some other new works from this year.
I am deeply thankful to my agent and Scottsdale gallerist, Nicole Royse of Royse Contemporary, for the opportunity to show my works and exhibit in Arizona. Thank you to all of you for your many kind and generous ways of showing support.
Pictures above from Pan Door, my recent January solo exhibition at Royse Contemporary.
In my studio, there rests a progressing mother/child drawing in deep cerulean blue pastel, and two large abstract paintings which feel all at once mischievous and full of longing. My work is cut out for me.
Details:
For many works, I’ve recently nixed my tape+staple routine of laying out a painting for a more immediate method. I simply lay my paper on a wood panel, untaped, and begin working. No clean edges. Rawer work method, like the old days. I’ve tried this with my little works, to wonderful effect… and have recently started a larger work in the same way. A simple step away from what could become cumbersome can open up new channels and free the work to flow in new directions. Very important. For those who paint, I am using a fabulous 200 lb Saunders Waterford cold press paper… it is very sturdy and does not warp easily, hence the ability to “rough it”. 🙂
I’m really happy to share that I’ve created a new series: Micro Drawings. These small, expressive drawings are thoughtfully created with my favorite medias, watercolor, ink and pastel, on fine 100% cotton paper. They are just right for those who seek a small and meaningful collectible to beautify their environment. Each one is $50 and available in my online shop. I am so enjoying creating these!
Findway
In You Me
Whirl
Unbind
Please keep my art in mind as we approach the holidays! It’s been a full year in my studio, weaving together stories on canvas and paper. I’ve created miniature to large works, and always with my heart on my sleeve. 
You may contact me or Royse Contemporary gallery in Scottsdale with any art queries. We’d love to hear from you! To see my full inventory, visit: http://charmagnecoe.com. #GiveArt #SupportArtYouLove
Hello.
Here is fresh, little work to express a love of diversity, and the love of beauty – innate and soulish and envisioned and created and wholly, divinely human. Yes, My Bee, You Should Wear Pink, 5 1/2″ x 7″, 2017, watercolor, ink and pastel. It IS available here.
The details:
These are drawings I’ve created in the last several weeks.
Bird and Blue, 2017, watercolor, ink and pastel drawing
On the Eve of Sun Lights, 2017, ink and fingerpainted wine drawing. Is wine archival? Um. Hmm.
This drawing in progress, in my Elementals series. My last drawing I created like this was for the inside of a limited edition gatefold album for Pausal on the Infraction label. You can visit this album and see pics of the artwork at bandcamp. In this work, I’m creating a composite: I draw automatistic shapes and figures separately, then I arrange and redraw them into a menagerie. It is so, so much fun to do. My plan for this work is inclusion in an upcoming drawing and painting exhibition.
For more pictures and updates about works in progress, new work and exhibition news, visit my Instagram and Facebook page.
Happy and wonderful fall days to you!
Thicket is my newest abstract and surreal painting, created with watercolor, ink and pastel, 19 1/4″ x 20″.
I began this more abstract painting, much as I do many, with only a slight perception of where the story might take me. My lines felt very much in sync with how I make contour drawings, but by using larger movements. India ink is a marvelous medium because it is so powerful, lustrous and unforgiving. Because this ink is permanent, creating with it feels like cliff-jumping. Sometimes I decide to jump really big. Why not? This work is figurative in the slightest, wildest sense. I hope to impart a kind of biophilic, nature-needing impulse.
Thicket is immediately available for purchase at my website.
Here are some recent ink drawings.
Oyster
The Praise. This is a drawing from my series, elementals.
Above is a detail picture from one of my small paintings in progress. This bird found itself on the edges of a lavender structure. I didn’t know it was a bird till I put a drop of black India ink on the sienna oval… and voila. Tweet, tweet.
It has been a productive summer thus far in my new home/old hometown, Phoenix. It’s heating up, but I feel my body adjusting to the encroaching 110+ temps. However, I won’t mind heading up north to my other mountain home, Flagstaff, to cool off and be inspired by the lupines, primroses and wild orchids.
Below is truly an Arizona drawing called Mountains and Mesas, 2016. I made it while living in an alternate reality of dewy, humid nature in the PNW.
Take care.
I completed this small painting in May. It is a meditative piece.
Drawings, created in ink and pastel….
Hearing, Here
to let go a god for Spirit
This is a grouping from my series, elementals.
And…This is another work in progress.
This is my newest completed painting. In it, I responded to many ponderings on the way we recognize one another as human animals. How we coalesce because of another’s connection to our lives. I will leave it at that, as there are so many ways to travel from those conversational/meditative starting points. Our Faces Come Because You Look For Us, 2017, watercolor, ink and pastel, 27 1/8″ x 19″, archival paper, unframed. You can view more at my shop. Enjoy.
Tonight, The Women Who Paint will again be having a group show at the Artery/Studio 6 based around the Art Detour 29 theme The Selfie. The artists included are Charmagne Coe, Carla Keaton, Cindy Schnackel, Lucretia Torva, Marisa Hall Valdez and Randy Zucker. I had to contemplate this theme for a bit… as I am not wont to think of myself as a solo self, but rather, I am me because of all of us. Universality. When I chose the works for the show, I saw my image in the works as me as having been affected by others. And, they are of you too if you see yourself there.
The Selfie Show
The Artery/Studio 6, 623 Indian School Road
Opening Reception:
First Friday, March 3rd, 6 – 10 pm
Art Detour Hours:
Third Friday, March 17th, 6 – 10 pm
Saturday, March 18th, 11 am – 5 pm
Sunday, March 19th, 11 am – 5 pm
A little more about Art Detour 29:
“Art Detour is expanding from two to four days in 2017, and will feature a diverse slate of activities created by local artists and art venues to celebrate the growing, vibrant Phoenix arts scene. The event is produced by Artlink Inc., in partnership with the City of Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture, Downtown Phoenix, AZ and Artlink Articipants.”
This is the recent drawing, Write the Words’ on Chapters’ Mouths.
Last month’s Small Works Love Show at The Artery was an intimate exhibition of works by my artist group, Ladies Who Paint. This gallery is located in the heart of Phoenix. It is home to the art collective at Studio 6; there art studios are upstairs… and when you visit, do take the time to see them! This was the first of many shows to come at this location throughout 2017. Below’s picture is courtesy of MJ Deen.
Last night’s group show held a lot of excited people on a crisp Arizona winter night. {9} The Gallery presented the opening reception of Tiny Works | Tiny Dances II, featuring over 100 artists whose work is sized 12″ x 12″ or under. The show will continue till December 16th. If you missed it, come back in two weeks for Third Friday, December 16th. 1229 Grand Ave, Phoenix, Arizona 85007. I will be attending then too. My following four works are included.
When I arrived at 6 sharp, the first piece of four, Inspirit, had already sold, and so was the case with many of my fellow artists’ works. The space filled up quickly with a happy, enthusiastic crowd of art lovers and it was a good time to be with old friends and new. It’s an honor to exhibit alongside talented Arizona artists such as Sky Black, Dan Pederson, Cindy Schnackel and Onna Voellmer. Emotionally expressive modern dances were performed by Nicole L. Olson, Elisa Cavallero and Travis Richardson at the gallery’s center. Thank you to all who came out to visit! Here are some snaps I took along the way.
This is my most recently completed painting. To me, it feels like a joyful celebration that rises up amidst a very challenging year. Swell The Life, 2016, 16 7/16″ x 13 1/8″, watercolor, ink and pastel.
I have another painting, The Gift, that will continue showing in Herberger Gallery at Arizona Center’s Home For The Holidays exhibition through January 16th. Stop by at 455 N. 3rd Street, Suite 1200 to see this and many other Arizona artists’ works. Connie and A O Tucker have done a lovely job of curating and hanging this show for the winter season.
The Gift, on the easel in my studio
I have many available finished works, both paintings and drawings, in my recent catalogue and past inventory. I also have several limited edition prints which are hand signed and numbered. You can view and purchase artwork directly at my website: charmagnecoe.com. And of course, I am always very happy to answer any questions. I’m at Facebook too. Drop me a line!
limited edition print, Crave Aurora
This evening I turned down the lights and said goodnight to this work in progress. Goodnight to you too.
My studio is finally getting fleshed out, and three weeks ago I began in earnest to start new works and wrap up ones I’d started on Vashon Island. Here is a miniature work I finished this week. Enjoy the detail pics too! Inspirit, 2016, 4 1/4″ x 5 1/16″, watercolor, ink and pastel.
Below is a recent ink drawing, When They Come, My Relics. I was fascinated by its contexts so much, that I felt it should be the basis for a new painting to explore it further. Beneath it is the work in progress.
Everyone asks me the same question: “Are you settled in yet?”. I moved from Vashon Island back to my hometown, Phoenix, in July. No, I’m not settled in. That’s the simple answer. There’s a lot to getting new rituals in place, making home a home and sinking roots. I think I’ve got a solid start though. Arizona is familiar to me in a way that is integral. I’m thankful to the family and friends who have gathered around us for a hell of a homecoming. It’s been sweet.
As I’m finally catching my breath, I’ve been attending several local gallery openings and the Downtown Phoenix First and Third Friday Art Walks. Below are pics of {9} The Gallery and its solo exhibition by Sky Black. Heard Museum hosted ArtLink Phoenix’s 18th Annual Juried Exhibition. It was a good opportunity to view and appreciate the diverse emerging and established talents who are pushing the art envelope in Phoenix. MonOrchid is always a fave of mine… and I’m glad I could catch their First Friday show by Kris Manzanares.
I’m enjoying finding new places to run. Though I don’t run far (yet), it’s been a regular ritual for years. I find that I work out painting problems, have sudden inspirations or solve daily confusions in the meditative pace. The heat, of course, is the most taxing part of running in Phoenix, but now that it’s cooling down, I’m hoping to make the miles stretch a little longer.
Here is a painting I finished on Vashon. It is still available at my shop. The Carrier, 2016,
watercolor, ink and pastel, 16″ x 14″.
Below are details from another work in progress. Started in April, wow, this one has definitely taken its time, but I’m savoring all the twists and turns in the slow process.
To see more of what I’m up to, I’m here at Facebook, and my website/shop. That’s all for now. I should be posting more frequently, now that I’m (mostly!) done with moving boxes, hallelujah. Take care.
Happy new year to you all! I am pleased to share two new paintings, mixed media works created in watercolor, ink and pastel. They both contain very abstract qualities, characters and are… like my other paintings, very emotional.
The Final Acceptance of Precious Ones, I Am Sure, 2015, watercolor, ink and pastel, 11 3/16″ x 8 15/16″
Diviners, 2015, watercolor, ink and pastel, 8 15/16″ x 9″
It’s been an extremely first wet winter season in the PNW for me. Record-breaking, in fact. What an induction, let me tell you. There is always water clinging to ferns and filling the bird baths. The skies are blanketed in gray.
Though it’s enticing to only remain cozy inside by the wood stove or behind insulatory windows, it’s important to go adventuring outside into nature and let those subtle and powerful biophilic forces rejuvenate the spirit. There are many, many ecosystems I know very little about here, having recently moved in September. So I’m educating myself as I go. Hearty duck boots (circa 1991) and fingerless mittens help me go warmly sloshing around. Even on the wettest day, I find it newly feasible to zip up my raincoat and go down to the beach. The forest trails are dense and padded down in a mulch of wet leaves and slick soil. New environments and geography inform new adaptations, both aesthetic and in the mind. This is the middle of the dark Seattle area season, no doubt about it. I’m not acclimated to it yet, but I’m letting it in and feeling.
These….
Lavished, ink drawing
Slip the Rocks and Water, ink drawing
Work in progress, watercolor, ink and pastel.
I am astray for light of you 