Out of the Ashes
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Tag Archives: Marie Cameron Studio
Goodnight Moon
Supermoon shining brightly over the studio tonight!
…one born every minute!
Yes, I am a sucker for pretty colors and patterns…all eye candy to me (and in this case actual candy)!
Sucker: Powell’s Hand Marbled Paper: Turkey
Widow Among the Butterflies and Roses
I just want to preface this post by letting you know that my gorgeous model has been safely released into the woods far away and no one was in danger of being bitten or hurt during this process.
Having said that, I can now go on about how thrilling and captivating it was to shoot this elegant, deadly spider with my delicate antique china and petals from my favorite rose. The scent was intoxicating, the beauty engulfing and there’s nothing quite like the creepy crawl of a spider to keep you on your toes!
I love the wild and dangerous darkness of the spider along with all of her creative, powerful and cunning associations contrasted with the domestic refinement of delicate petals and porcelain – I could drink it in for days!
Black Widow Tea
Oh my, look who’s come for tea!
Innocent Celibacy?
In a Victorian world where bachelors buttons signify male celibacy and daisies refer to innocence, a bouquet of both would leave you with innocent male celibacy. That’s quite a bundle for a little teacup yet here it is with this “Elizabethan” teacup from England – 1940s or 50s I’m guessing:
Raindrops Keep Falling
I need little excuse to slip on my red rubber boots, pop open my bubble umbrella to slosh about to see how the world is transformed by a good down pour in our drought stricken state!
Well, my world turned out to be very small today – I did make it to the studio of course and I love the way it looks so cozy there waiting for me.
I was amazed to see how each raindrop on my umbrella contained a little image of my studio ( be it inverted and distorted ). Little moments of magic – keep it coming rain!
Open viewing
Remember Me, my casket full of forget-me-nots, is designed to exist both as part of a gallery installation to compliment my Florilegia series and in composed landscape photographs. I adore how thoroughly Victorian this piece is while still seeming somehow contemporary. I think the secret lies in the simplicity of the idea and its presentation.
These flowers bloom in the spring for about a month or two which is a small window for exhibition. Anyone know if you can force forget-me-nots to bloom from seed in greenhouse conditions anytime of the year?
Day in the Studio
My studio as the wisteria would see it, the air laced with iridescent cobwebs.
Today was a perfect day, iridescent spider webs trailing from the skies and across my face on the way to work. The air was heavily scented with wisteria and lilac, all flooding through the open windows of my studio, mixing with the smell of linseed oil. NPR was talking about the secret lives of cats as seen though mini cat cams and I was finishing up a painting that my son has named End of Spring. I was taken with the melancholy beauty of this image when I first saw this photo by my multi-talented friend and novelist Christy Ann Conlin. She was generous to let me use it for a painting and although I should be prepping for Open Studio I’m so glad I dropped everything to do it. I love how this dead robin lying on a shovel transcends its profane circumstance and is elevated, literally and figuratively, to a vantage where we can experience a moment of wonderment at its life.
Wisteria sinensis “Alba” I wait for it all year long.
Syringa vulgaris ‘Sensation’, a twist on a childhood favorite grows beneath my studio windows.
Finishing up End of Spring.
Examining real feathers.
Cuong Nguyen’s Aspects
I find Cuong Nguyen’s portraits simply awe inspiring so it must be obvious what a delight it was for me to meet him in person at his opening reception for his show Aspects at the Triton Museum of Art! This artist is so genuinely warm and friendly it was easy to see how he must put his subjects immediately at ease and be granted access to peer into their souls!
His muses milled about the guests and it was fun to spotting these models walking around the show: a distinctive pair of glasses, a pair of gorgeous eyes, a striking profile, these intimate details seemed familiar in real life after admiring them on the monumental scale that Cuong paints.
Preston Metcalf, the Triton’s chief curator related to me a bit of the artist’s roots in Viet Nam where he began to paint as a boy of 10 and was tutored in the techniques of Russian Realism. He began his formal training at the Academy of Art in Saigon and continued at San Jose State studying Graphic Design and Illustration. Cuong Nguyen has recently swept up all kinds of accolades including Best in Show at the International Association of Pastel Societies’ 15th Juried Exhibition, Grand Prize of the Pastel Journal Magazine Competition 2010 and winning First Place at the Triton’s 2011 Statewide Painting Competition and Exhibition. Needless to say, Cuong has his hands full with commissions!
Aspects: Multiple Face, Multiple Views will be on exhibit at the Triton Museum of Art located on 1501 Warburton Avenue in San Jose, California until November 11, 2012.
For more information check out www.tritonmuseum.org and the artist’s website www.icuong.com.
It was a real pleasure meeting artist Cuong Nguyen at his reception for Aspects at the Triton! We’re standing in front of Him oil on canvas 48″ x 60″ (my favorite piece).
Cuong Nguyen Portraits of Hope Triptych oil on canvas in Aspects.
Cuong Nguyen with Resolve oil on canvas 40″ x 40″ and his muse.
Cuong Nguyen and his many muses (including the amazing artist Jaya King).
Cuong Nguyen Portrait of Blue and Portrait of Green triptychs oil on canvas.
Cuong Nguyen Up (Portraits of Green) oil on canvas 40″ x 40″.
I love this piece and understand that it was sold before the exhibition was fully installed. I adore tattoos in paintings and have one in the works myself (a painting with a tattoo, that is, not a real one).
This photograph of a girl viewing Cuong Nguyen’s Her oil on canvas 48″ x 60″ shows what it’s like to be face to face with one of these stunning paintings.
Paving Over Heart’s Delight
I keep an album of vintage postcards in my studio as evidence of what preceded the Silicon Valley. The mountain views of the Valley of Heart’s Delight are still recognizable of course but these fluffy blankets of blooms now lie like bits of lint intersected by highways and subdivisions. Our last remaining orchard in Los Gatos, the North 40, is now slated for development. It would be bulldozed already if there agreement on what combination of shops and restaurants and housing in required. Maybe a remnant of the past makes for a better future.
My album of old orchard postcards from the Valley of Heart’s Delight.
An orphaned fruit tree caught between the tracks and the Highway 85 in Los Gatos.
Slated for development, North 40 along Highway 17 is the last remaining orchard in Los Gatos.
On a Pedestal
I thought I came up with a cute design trick this morning when I used an antique pedestal as a computer desk. Although I longed to paint I had to complete an entry for an upcoming exhibition. Once that was done I was still drawn back like a moth to flame. Twitter this and Facebook that, Google here and email there, Etsy convos and blogosphere bonanzas! I realized that this was not a desk I’d created but an altar. I now have a self imposed computer curfew. Be careful what you place on a pedestal!
Home to Roost
When my paintings went off for exhibition at Breathe there was a huge vacuum created in my home and studio, and you know how nature feels about that, well me too – we abhor it!
It didn’t long for me to tire of all those empty nails and hooks everywhere, and soon enough they all were hung with elaborate vintage frames teasing me with all the endless possibilities of my next new project. Before I knew it the summer had flown by busy as I was with commissions and exhibitions. Now the paintings have returned and displaced those empty frames which are themselves a sort of vacuum and they too long to be filled.
Oh, did I mention that I acquired a casket? I’ll be filling that too, not in a morbid way but with a florilegia flourish.
