Nostalgia

Apple Cart 12 x 16 Acrylic on Panel 

Snow on the Woodshed 12 x 16 acrylic on panel

Nostalgia

The last few weeks I have been painting images from a warm and fondly remembered past.  I have recently been longing for a time in my life that was less fearful and complicated.  

Painting is my own safety zone for memories, thoughts and ideas.  I can push myself forward or fall back at my own rhythm.   Maine and Prince Edward Island are places where I connect with my family and friends, with nature and a slower pace...

   

In a  season that has been filled with worries and concerns for the future and where the unknown looms very large, painting provides a present moment space of  fierce awareness.  It separates me from the chaos of the news, the phone and the internet, and leaves some room to take a breath.

Horse Power 24 x 20 acrylic on canvas

Training Day 18" x 24" acrylic on Panel

Lobster Pots 18" x 24" acrylic on panel

Getting Going Again

Two Turtle Day 24" x 24" acrylic on canvas

  It's been months since my husband went in to Seattle Cancer Care Aliance for a stem cell transplant to treat Multiple Myeloma, a cancer of the bones and blood.  I became his care giver, and set aside everything else.   It was important to let go of art because when I paint, I get forgetful...loose track of time...get absorbed in the process.  Michael needed me to be fully present, so I set aside painting and teaching.

  

We moved to the Pete Gross House in Seattle near Lake Union to be closer to the clinic, and set about to go step by step to save Michael's  life.

 

Living a short walk from the lake allowed me to meet several of the residents.   I counted how nice the weather was by how many turtles lined up on logs.  A "two turtle day" showed promise, a "ten turtle day" was the nicest day of the year.  My other favorite resident of the lake was a gorgeous great blue heron who was so engrossed in fishing that he completely ignored my presence.  On lovely days between cancer treatment appointments, my husband and I would stroll down to the lake and watch  sea planes , sail boats, kids splashing in the water, and the heron in his slow motion fishing beneath the watchful eye of the Space Needle  amidst the roar of urban traffic.

On Stilts  24" x 12" acrylic on hardboard

Patient Fisher 24" x 12" acrylic on hardboard

So here we are two months post transplant...home on Camano Island.  Cancer is in remission.   Now I am beginning to paint  again.  My classes are scheduled to begin soon, and I can't stay out of the studio.  Right now I am painting the images from South Lake Union that kept me refreshed during a stressful time. Thankful and blessed that my husband received wonderful medical care, and that we are home again, putting our lives back together.

 

 

For a list of my upcoming classes and workshops click here.

 

 

 

 

Two Spring Demonstrations

 

Valley Bloom was painted as a demonstration forfor Mercer Isalnd Visual Arts League (MIVAL) on April 2nd 2015 (as a one hour demo).  I put another couple of hours into it at home...I think it still needs work.  But I love the Skagit Valley when it is in bloom, and I think it a worthy subject to get right.

Valley Bloom 36" x 36" acrylic

"Winters End" was painted as a demonstration for Evergreen Associations of the Arts (EAFA) on March 19 2015.  It was started as a one hour demo, and I added another hour of finishing as home.  I did a smaller study of this painting last fall.  I used a photo I took in a back alley in Cle Elum WA.

"Winters End"  36 x 24 Acrylic

A Safe Place

East of the Pass 24" x 30" acrylic Dianna Shyne

Looking for Light 24" x 18" acrylic

In my childhood games of chase, there was always "Home Base", a place where you were safe and no one could get you.

Right now, my home and studio feels like "base". A safe place in a uncertain time.

This summer, my wonderful husband of three years, Michael Gotz, was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a cancer affecting the bone marrow and blood.  Suddenly, our wonderful, blissful life of making art and music  has changed.  Stress and uncertainties loom.  Battles with the insurance provider are ramping up over what services they will and will not provide.

Michael is great.  He keeps writing music and going to gigs.  He is constantly cracking me up with his jokes, and caring for his wild birds out the window. He will play his guitar until he drops.




Walk in the Wild 16" x 20"

 

Mother of the Field 24" x 30"

One Small Gift 20" x 16"

 As I look over the work I've done in the last few months, I can see the arc of feeling and emotion...it's almost like a personal journal...The protective mother under a scorching sun, the uncertain watcher looking for hope, a bend in the river, a creator of small gifts, a blissful cat on a crooked porch.

Painting has always been the way I find joy, work through problems, work off excess energy, cope with stress, express my emotions... deal with uncertainty.  I think I'll get off the computer and go paint.

Porch Cat 16" x 20"

Studying Boats



Boats on the Arno (Florence Italy) 24" x 24" acrylic on canvas

Rowing Out From Shore (Winslow WA) 24" x 18" Acrylic on Panel

  I've recently been fascinated with the shape of boats and ships.  Like human forms, every one is unique.  My daughter is a ship captain, so painting them impressionistically under the gaze of her exacting eye is no easy task....It's a worthy study and a work in progress.  

Angelique in Winter (Camden Maine) 16 x 12



Small Boats Study (Camden Maine)  12" x 12" Acrylic on panel

In Quiet Water (Winslow, WA) 16" x 12" Acrylic on Panel (sold)










Circles

Dianna Shyne (Me)

Susan Diehl

 

Susan Diehl Painting

So why am I not painting?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My 2012 painting trip to Italy and subsequent show at the Cole Gallery (Now through Mid July 2013)  began on a dark dirt road in Glacier Nation Park in 1990 where Susan Diehl and I first met. It was to be my very first plein air painting experience. Susan and I quickly became close friends…our children were the same ages, we lived in the same town, and were taking painting classes from the same teachers…Ron Lukas, Del Gish, William Reese....

We painted together for years until Susan and her family moved to Arizona.
Susan and I still get together to collaborate and travel, we are in some of the same galleries…we travelled to Western China together in 2008 to paint. So when the opportunity to bring a group of students to Tuscany arose, Susan was my first choice as a teaching partner. We decided to present a unique workshop where all the students were encouraged to use the iconic landscapes and ancient cityscapes to develop their own poetic voice.

This trip to Italy was the completion of a circle that started when I was 16 years old on my first trip to Italy…Until then, I had never really been exposed to original paintings. My first art experience of any kind was the Sistine chapel… Michelangelos iconic ceiling half cleaned and glowing with color, half dark with the grime of centuries. Until this moment, tiny pictures in text books were all I had. I stared at the ceiling until I was ushered out….I got it…art…painting…the profound immaculate and messy beauty of it. I knew I wanted to be an artist…to learn more (everything) …to see more…

Over the years, I longed to return to Italy to experience the landscapes that inspired both a Renaissance and my own life path. It was my dream, but career, children, finances, time constraints kept me away…now slow forward forty years and here I come full circle.

Returning to Italy as an artist and teacher, bringing eager and longing student artists with me to encounter this place as an adult with a whole life of experiences in tow became something entirely new… the completion of one circle and the beginning of a new one.

I will be returning to Tuscany again this fall with another group of students…It’s just me this time. It turns out I can’t be around oil paint at all. So Susan and I have parted ways as co-teachers, but continue our friendship and collaboration with this current exhibition of paintings. http://www.colegallery.net/searchresults.php?exhibitionId=270&start=1

Workshop Demo

Roses on the Ruins 36" x 24" Acrylic on Masonite

This weekend I taught another workshop at the Winslow Arts Center. This painting was a demonstration on using a limited palette.  It was completed in a little over an hour of furious painting.  I did it during the lunch break because I wanted my students to get back to their own work.
It was amazing to see the progress they all made in two short days.

Friday Workshop

Last Friday I taught a one day workshop at the Winslow Arts Center on Bainbridge Island.  It was so much fun.  There were some really great painters there, and everyone stepped out of their comfort zone.  Here are photos of a few of the participants work.  I will be teaching another workshop there on October 6th and 7th.

Off to Winslow

In Quiet Water 18" x 14" acrylic on masonite

   This Painting was the product of my stay on Bainbridge Island in August  where I taught a three day plein air workshop.  I go there again tomorrow to teach another workshop.  It's been a busy month with my classes starting, exhibitions going up and others coming down, meetings (blah...blah...blah..).  My commute time from my home on a little island is about an hour and a half each way.  Sometimes I feel like I'm just rushing from one minute to the next.
     Then there's painting.  It seems to suspend time...or better, time seems to stretch sideways.  And there is the added benefit of slowing down, standing for hours very quietly in front of something that inspires me...trying to observe every nuance.  The act of painting is very personal to me and frames everything else with meaning and purpose.

Recent Demonstration

Daily Ritual 12" x 16" acrylic

Ruins in the Poppies  24" x 30" acrylic on masonite

  On Labor day I did two demonstrations at Daniel Smith art materials in Seattle.  Each of these demos was about an hour and a half long.  I finished the pieces at home, and promised those brave souls who  watched the demonstrations that I would post the completed paintings.  Here they are in this form....I may still do some tweeking.  I used plein air paintings I did in Tuscany this spring as the color inspiration, and photographs I took for the composition.

Night LIfe -Victoria Row, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island

Night LIfe Victoria Row 24" x 18" acrylic
I am starting this blog with a painting of an warm summer evening spent with friends dining under the fading sky and the twinkle of lights in the trees on Victoria Row,in Charlottetown on Prince Edward Island in Canada.  I have visited this place almost every summer for twelve years, and spent time with warmhearted friends on the island.  Exploring and painting are at the heart of my art journey, and this island has been a long time love.