New Painting-A Place at the Table

A Place at the Table

This painting is on a 12” x 36” gallery wrapped canvas; hand painted monoprints, acrylic, graphite and pastel.

After waiting for the collage to dry, I stood and stared at my easel. Soon I saw a table with vase of diverse blooms and buds. The flowers couldn’t possibly grow from the same plant, yet they wanted to appear as-is in all their diversity. I invited the background to recede into white pearlescent acrylic.

The painting spoke with me when I sat down in my meditation room and asked its name. This is what I heard:

There’s a place for you at the table, a place for you to shine. No matter what your shape or color, you belong. You deserve to be admired and adored.

There’s a place for you at the table. All it takes is your belief that you deserve to be loved and valued. It doesn’t require physical perfection, just belief. Allow God’s grace to reach into every aspect of your life simply because you are you.

There is a place for you at the table of life, a place for you to shine. Just believe it is so and it will be.

©Claudia Rose, Ph.D.

New Painting-Happiness Lives

Happiness Lives in the Heart

This is a painting of leftovers. While making monoprints with Gelli plates, I needed to repeatedly clean my brayer. I rolled excess paint on a 18” x 24” Ampersand cradled Clayboard. Eventually, I saw the image of an Ikebana floral arrangement—elegant and spare. Ikebana is a disciplined Japanese art form that some date back to 1500 B.C. There are specific rules in creating the arrangement, which is regarded as a living thing unifying both nature and man.

The image took shape as I gently scrapped a graphite pencil across the board over several days. Red emerged. When I looked at the painting, I saw red—the color of life, passion, inspiration. So I painted one red flower and several small blossoms. Eventually, the painting revealed its name to me, Happiness Lives in the Heart. The painting reminds me of a poem I wrote:

every morning

I greet happiness

as a welcome friend.

©Claudia Rose, Ph.D.

New Collage-It Must Be Spring

It Must Be Spring

After affixing handmade monoprints on deli paper to a 12” x 12” gallery wrapped canvas, I thought I was going to paint a delicate portrait. The painting had its own ideas. Before I knew it, a tree emerged. I saw the trunk and round shape of limbs.

It must have been the birds singing outside the window. It was as if they flew onto the canvas to direct my brush and palette knife. Soon a sweet landscape emerged. They asked me to call the painting, “It Must Be Spring”.

©Claudia Rose, Ph.D.

New Abstract-Flowers Bloom

Flowers Bloom All Around

I ran my hands across the 12” x 12” gallery wrapped canvas and asked what wanted to come forward. Without thinking, I found myself sorting through stacks of monoprints. I never took these prints seriously. They were just play, the result of rolling acrylic paint on Gelli plates and pressing various papers on the plates with unpredictable results.

I started placing tissue-thin papers on the canvas. One after another, pieces found their place. Scrapping and overlapping, I affixed the paper with gel medium. I turned the canvas in all four directions until I found the “right” orientation.

I had every intention of using this as an underpainting with layers of glazes and marks on top. Every time I started to pick paints or pencils, I stopped.

“I am enough,” I heard. “I am enough as I am.”

Yes, I decided. You are enough. What a profound message! Though the current mixed media trend is to layer glazes, paper, paint, ink, cold wax in as many as 25 to 50 layers per painting, I listened to my intuition. I was clearly guided to stop, to let love have its way, to love something just as it is, to create joyfully and easily.

“I am enough.” This is the message of the painting. I am enough. I am beautiful as I am. And so are you.

© Claudia Rose, Ph.D.

New Painting-She Brings the Spring

She Brings the Spring

I was determined to be un-determined in the creation of this painting. I started by gently caressing the surface of a 24” x 24” gallery wrapped canvas. I then created texture with stencils and gel medium followed by acrylic washes.

A face began to appear. Would I flesh her out in graphite? No, I decided. Graphite is too harsh for this one. I picked up a pastel pencil with the intention of making a light outline. But my hands had other ideas. They loved the pastel pencils and their soft touch—like a breath leaving its imprint on the canvas.

I then saw blossoms in the background washes. I brought out the blossoms with pastel and acrylic glazes.

I admire her beauty, soft, integrated into the flowers as if she herself was a flower ready to bloom.

©Claudia Rose, Ph.D.

Love of Nature-Odilon Redon

The Athenaeum by Odilon Redon

Valentine's Day is almost here. How appropriate that I felt a wave of gratitude float over me today as I looked at the floral paintings of Frenchman, Odilon Redon (1840-1916). Such joy! I felt my heart center activated as I looked at his paintings on the internet.

Redon's paintings generate joy and feelings of love because he created them with love. He literally worshiped nature. One writer is quoted: "...he felt the need for light and climbed towards colour as if towards paradise."

Redon also painted landscapes, portraits, and allegories as a Symbolist artist. You can enjoy some of his paintings on my Pinterest board: https://www.pinterest.com/homesbyclaudia/flowers-in-art/

May Redon's love of nature tap your heart and open you to the beauty all around!

Odilon Redon

© Claudia Rose, Ph.D.