Tag Archives: nature

Over The Moon

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Over the Moon 2.18

“Over the Moon”,  acrylic on Canvas, Feb 2018 ~ Maria Doglio

Moon-day Morning, early dark slightly lifting.  The first day of daylight saving time.  I sleepily shuffle through the kitchen, coffee mug in hand and open the curtains of the south east window of my front room gallery.  I look out to find a crescent moon flirting with a cloudy sky, casting just enough light against them to create a dramatic, changing scene of illumination within the surrounding blackness.  I’m painting it in my mind.

My thoughts turn to the comfort of familiarity.  The countless phases of the moon, the sun’s rise and setting, the consistency of their daily orbits, ties us together in a familiar human experience on this particular planet.   We humans watch in tireless awe at the ever changing, creative patterns they paint in their travels, day and night.

No matter how much we insist on our separateness, our countries, customs, languages and borders, the moon rises and brings us all out to stare at the night sky, as it dances in an arc with the  stars.  The sun rises to chase the moon and darkness into another night far away until it sinks again to follow the moon’s trail.  The familiar play needs no translation.  It brings our human condition together in oneness.

One night, as a full moon appeared among an amazing array of popcorn like clouds, I snapped a photo as the moon drifted through them, the clouds misting and reforming into a shape I saw as a wolf leaping over it.   The inspiration to paint that scene resulted in “Over the Moon”,  #4 in my wolf series, completing it.  Here is my wall of wolves, where I like to sit and watch the morning unfold.

Wolf Series_Front Room Gallery 2018

The sky has lightened now into pale shades of blue and yellow with a hint of pink on the horizon, while a heavy bank of billowy dark clouds move in against it, promising rain.  The crescent moon stands alone now,  waiting for the sun to show it’s face before moving on.  A new day dawns.

Let nature inspire your creativity with abandon – the patterns are endless.

© Maria Doglio March, 2018

 

 

 

Solitude of the Forest

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Space Clearing for Our Hearts 

West Fork Trail, Sedona 2017

West Fork Trail, Sedona, AZ ~ 2017, Acrylic on Canvas

Sometimes, if I can’t get to the forest, I paint a memory of one.  For this I rely on old photos of places I’ve been that have brought me serenity and joy, allowing a higher guidance to come through.  Nature gives us the opportunity to be quiet, to reconnect with the earth, ourselves and our relationship with each other.   Here we can listen to the voice of our soul.  Julia Cameron* expresses it so well when she says, “…we clear space in our lives in order to center and clear space in our hearts.  The soul’s voice, the voice of guidance, then ventures into the clearing we have created for it.”

When I paint a memory of a place and how I was feeling at the time, that energy goes into the painting.  If I am successful in that, the energy of the feeling goes back out to the viewer who is sensitive to the energy within the painting.

West Fork trail is in a magical forest – it takes you through meadows, wooded areas and streams deep within it.  The painting, West Fork Trail, captures a small part of my journey during my first exposure to Sedona’s energy back in 2004.  The memory of it and this particular spot was what I wanted to express in this painting.  It hangs in my living room and I can view it from my couch and fall into it’s peacefulness whenever I need to.

Going farther back in time, is this view of a piece of the Hudson River.

Meadow on the Hudson 2015

Meadow on the Hudson ~ 2015 (Acrylic on two 4×5 canvases)

Meadow on the Hudson  was an experiment in a continuous painting on two small canvases.  It depicts a little scene from when I lived in Massachusetts and took a trip in a vintage red Thunderbird convertible with a passionate artist friend who I was in love with at the time. For me it has a light hearted memory attached to it, with much joy in breathing in this scene in the moment we were there.   A painting can be small and still draw you in to a deeper place.

Finding Serenity captures a moment when the peace of nature with woods and river brings us back to center.  We can breath deeply and let go.   We can reconnect and ground ourselves, remembering the qualities of life that matter most.  One on one time with my daughter was a precious moment.

Finding Serenity 2016

Finding Serenity 2016 ~ Acrylic on canvas

Take time to nurture yourself.  Treat your creativity as a spiritual practice, drawing from your authentic self by tuning in and painting intuitively from the inspiration you find within yourself.  The joy of expression through painting is an endless process that keeps on giving. 

 

© Maria Doglio, July 4, 2017

* Excerpt from “The Artist’s way, Every Day” by Julia Cameron

LATE SUNDAY MORNING MUSING

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Art and Expression In Life is All Around

I left the house askew, needing dusting, the floors unswept, sewing and art projects scattered in almost every room unfinished or poised with ideas waiting to blossom into form from my imagination.

The sky outside was threatening, but I wanted to walk.  I took the umbrella, just in case, setting off for the local coffee shop, dropping letters into a mail box along the way.  I headed past the now famous and controversial “Listener”, a giant naked green lady, her gaze serenely intent on the heavens.  She is oblivious to her nakedness and all that find her “distasteful” – she is herself, a unique expression of life’s essence and the artist who created her.

I decide to sit at a table outside under a red umbrella.  It occurs to me that the color red is showing up a lot  in my life lately.  The boldness of red.  Courage.  Fearlessly moving forward.  All of these is the subtle message being given to me within the color red.  Just what I need now on my journey to embody more fully, the integration of art in my life!

I sit sipping latte from a yellow cup and saucer, observing colors all around me.

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Latte Sunday, at Plank, Cloverdale, CA

The gray tones of early morning are now gone.  The artfulness of this little bit of town is now set against a sky that has gone fluffy with giant clouds, with patches of brilliant blue sky emerging from behind them.

We take our inspiration for art from life all around us.  The outward vision fuels the inner vision and from there springs our interpretation of the worlds that we find. Colors in nature play in our vision to spill upon the canvas.   Like the “Listener” who asks us to stop and really hear beyond ourselves, colors present themselves, both subtle and bold, so that we may see and feel more clearly the riches around us.

Whatever art form I am drawn to, whatever colors are calling me, the feeling of the colors in the portrayal is just as important as the image itself.  On the walk home, I found beauty of colors in a tangle of weeds and at an old gate to an abandoned house.  After I paint them onto canvases waiting in the wings, these images will continue to tell their story, long after the blossoms have faded.

Take your inner artist for a walk, keeping an open mind for the unexpected beauty and simplicity in the vignette’s of nature.  See what colors you come home with to inspire you.

photo 3 photo 1

© Maria Doglio, April 27, 2014