Loosen Up and Let Go.

"It took me 4 years to paint like Raphael, but a life time to paint like a child."
-Pablo Picasso

 

"Curiosity"

8" x 8" clay, paper and acrylic on wood

 

 

I  love working with children; and every time I do I swear I learn as much from them as they do from me.

Always.

It is a collaboration.

 

 

 

I recently had a group of girls visit my studio. For three hours they drew, painted, sculpted , and collaged their hearts out. There was never any hesitation; only unbridled enthusiasm and fearlessness. Never any criticism; only joy with their creation. This is always the lesson I learn.

 

 

 

 

Children don't worry if their work is sellable. They have no critics. They paint simply to express themselves. Who cares if nothing comes from it? So loosen up, let go and learn to paint like a child. From the heart!

 

 

 

 

 

Call and Response

"Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart".

William Wordsworth

 

Last night I sat around a table with four of my favorite people: my mother, my dear friend Caroline and her daughter Zoe. Four women between the ages of 18 and 60. We had gathered together for a fun art experiment: Call and Response. Each of us began an art piece; a  call. The art was then passed to the next of us, and so on. We did not see our art for the next two hours. There was conversation everywhere... two pots of tea were drunk, and we used our heart's breathings to respond to each other's call. No mark ever fell on neutral ground.

 

Angela's Call: Till She Can Bring Her Beauty

 

 

The Response: She Must be The Beast

 

 

Bonnie's Call: Angle of Destination?

 

 

The Response: The sun sets each day, so it may rise again.

 

 

 

Zoe's Call

 

 

The Response

 

 

Caroline's Call: real beauty, old age, wrinkled, get older, every wrinkle, smile line, marks of wisdom

 

The Response: her beauty, your eyes.

 

 

 

 

Can't you just feel our hearts? Don't you wish you were there?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

April: Conversations In Paint

I like the idea of collaborations as conversations. Keith Haring once said, "Collaboration paintings are a physical conversation in paint instead of words. The sense of humor, the snide remarks, the profound realizations, the simple chit chat all happened with paint and brushes."

I recently collaborated with my mother, Bonnie Coulter, to create a conversation about the precarious nature of emotional states.

 

"Hold Back The Storm"

 In "Hold back The Storm", Bonnie envisioned an emotional storm, and she used her experience with painting landscapes to speak about this.

 

After years of studying psychology, I first became a mother and then a portrait artist. I'm often thrown into the eye of the storm of adolescent hormones and fears as my boys and their friends navigate their way through their teens. This experience became my part of the conversation.

 

 

All month long I will be exploring collaborative art: joint paintings, call and response, commissions and working with kids.

 

Truly You, Beautiful You

 

"Hymn To The Silence"

12" x 36"

$250

 

 

"It doesn’t make sense to call ourselves ugly, because we don’t really see ourselves. We don’t watch ourselves sleeping in bed, curled up and silent with chests rising and falling with our own rhythm. We don’t see ourselves reading a book, eyes fluttering and glowing. You don’t see yourself looking at someone with love and care inside your heart. There’s no mirror in your way when you’re laughing and smiling and happiness is leaking out of you. You would know exactly how bright and beautiful you are if you saw yourself in the moments where you are truly yourself."

 

(via dirtywings)

Courage

Every person in the world is more than meets the eye. It's what I loved about studying psychology; it's what I look forward to discovering in people.  Every week my boys' dance instructor stands in front of groups of children and teaches. Well, it's more than that really. She inspires; she radiates joy and love. Her enthusiasm lights up a room. She is also very shy. She struggles with the duality of an introvert wanting to perform. When I spend time with Niki, I'm reminded of the e.e. cummings quote

 "It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are".

 

"Size: Courage"

24" x 48"

$1000

 

I got a little courageous myself when I was painting this portrait. Usually, I under paint my portraits blue. But Niki's color is purple! I struggled to begin this painting in purple. I was most of the way through before I could sigh with relief.

 

 

The purple under painting.

 

 

 

 

Wild Women

I paint naked women. My paintings are not nudes and they are not figure studies. They are the stories of wild women, as told through my paintbrush. Wild women are honest and courageous; they are self accepting; they know the value of themselves; they are not afraid of their vulnerability and they know they are enough. Nobody emboddies this message more than my dear friend Caroline. I am so honored to be painting her story entiltled "Size: Acceptance". The theme this month at Angela Menzies Art is Wild Women!

 

"Size: Acceptance"

30" x 30" acrylic on canvas

$950

Art as a Diary

There's always something a little terrifying about painting a self portrait. And I don't just mean the naked ones. My naked face is much more telling...grey hair and laugh lines hint at a life filled with joy. But there are also the bags under my eyes that betray sadness and anxiety; heavy lidded eyes that can't sleep. For a full life does indeed have all of these moments and they are written on my skin.

 

2" x 2" ink on wooden block

 

 

I paint self portraits for many reasons. The most obvious one is that I always have a model available. But I also believe self portraits are very real self reflections. Over the years I have painted over a dozen self portraits. Put together in my journal they tell my story: I love my kids, being a mom is awesome, being a mom is hard work, sometimes I'm sad, I have a chubby butt, and I often need a hug.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I hope you have enjoyed a month of emotional self portraits and I also hope that it inspires you to try some of your own.