Kurma

Here is Kurma, the wonderful tortoise incarnation of Vishnu, with the diatyas and demigods suspended above (they are actually churning the ocean of milk using a sacred mountain as a churning rod and Vasuki, the celestial snake, as the rope). Kurma is kindly providing support while having his back scratched at the same time! This is the history behind the fascinating Kumbha Mela festival, celebrated in India every 12 years. Up to 70 million human beings attend!
This is a large gouache piece. I painted this, along many others in the same series, after spending months painting freely, in the process-painting mood, with an array of Lascaux gouache. Have a great week!

Refreshing!

Creating, when you really get into it, is a long, refreshing, adventurous walk; it shifts complacency and limitation.
This is an untitled 12 by 12 inch linocut, started in Hong Kong and finished in Florida, a few miles from the ocean's roar. Have a wonderful week, honoring your beautiful essence! : )

Secret

Often our own greatest gifts are secret to ourselves; the inner world is rich and vast yet hidden mysteriously just below the surface and layers. This recent 12 by 12 inch linocut's formal title is "Incubation." Thanks for visiting and have an inspired week!

Return

Return to oil painting! Here is some detail from new work, including (improvised) Hong Kong birds. The Crested Bulbuls are my favorites; they fly around in pairs with almost perfect synchronicity. Have a great week!



And for all you printmaking fans, here is a Charles Brand press with a 4 foot roller! It is housed, and used, in the beautiful Visual Arts Center in Hong Kong Park, as pictured here.

Suspense

Raptors, often seen sitting on electric wires in rural areas, are surrounded with suspense. And suspense, in human terms, can be energy giving; there is an aliveness to the anxiety associated with unknown outcomes, a sense of being on a threshold. This is a small watercolor, painted on an Arches block pad.


Above is a scene from the Hong Kong Park. The park itself is small, but it's beautiful. And just above the tea house, as you enter, there's a museum dedicated to hand carved soap stone seals, or chops; printmaking at its finest!
Thanks for stopping by!

Highlight

I found this shell on a nearby beach, well known for washing up beautifully formed conches. Conches are wonderful to hold. They also carry within their form the symphony of the ocean waves. Conches themselves can be blown (provided the tip isn't sealed), as they are in temples in India and around the world; their powerful sound can shift energies and remind us of our own inner strength and beauty.
This is an 11 by 14 inch oil on hardboard. May the sound of the conch be with you on your journey through 2012!

Separate

"Although she was separate, she was in the company of inner wisdom, her old, constant friend."
This is a 20 by 28 inch oil painting, painted outdoors, in the alive company of woodland creatures (including this Blue Jay)! Have a great week! Thanks for stopping by. : )

More Watercolor Studies: Stripes!

Have an inspiring, expansive week!