Sargy Mann

Sargy Mann: More. Different. Better. Thoughts towards a talk. from Peter Mann Pictures on Vimeo.

Truly I am posting links to these videos and articles for myself, so I can find them easily again later. Bookmarking. But I find the British artist Sargy Mann fascinating. Even as his eyesight diminished and finally failed him completely, Mann continued to develop and excel as a painter. The film above, made by his son Peter, captures his preparations to deliver a TED talk. Sadly, he passed away several months before giving his presentation. The film below, also by Peter, is an incremental look at how Mann made paintings when he was fully blind.

Sargy Mann from Peter Mann Pictures on Vimeo.

And if you're now as enchanted as I am by Mann's analysis and painting, then here is a BBC Magazine article that he wrote called "How a blind painter sees." Enjoy!

Ruth Miller Forge & Stuart Shils in conversation

I just witnessed eleven minutes of magic between Ruth Miller Forge and Stuart Shils. Sorry, that sounded risque, but I assure you it's a fascinating discussion about painting! Follow this link.

Good morning

Today I was up before the sun, coffee in hand, making some notes about the winter sunrise.

Into the woods

What one loves in childhood stays in the heart forever. -- Mary Jo Putney

This was my view of the sky as a child, small patches of sky filtering through the trees. My bedroom was on the second floor of our hundred-year-old family home. Through a set of old French doors I could step out onto the roof of the side porch. I dreamed among those treetops. My great-grandparents rested in a small cemetery among the roots. The woods of Glyndon and Foxley echoed with the footfalls of generations. 



This is my view of the sky from our back porch. Is it any wonder that the same year my husband and I buy our little house in the woods that I begin painting trees? Trees and trees and trees.



I have trees on the brain, Carlson on the nightstand, and some experiments in monoprinting with a pancake griddle underway.

Inspiration

(These images are from around the web.) Abstract expressionist painter Elaine de Kooning made a series of more than 100 Bacchus paintings in the late 1970s and early 1980s. I am finding her work very inspiring lately, especially the one in the top left corner. Elaine's inspiration for the paintings was Jules Dalou's sculpture "The Triumph of Silenus" created in 1885 and located in Paris. I must confess that I don't care for the statue with its leering nudist Santa.

Inspiring me

It's nearly plein air season!  Paint Snow Hill 2013 is only a month away. I've been looking at some of my favorite artists to get the creative juices flowing. I have been poring over the acrylic knife paintings of Welsh artist Matthew Snowden. I stumbled on his artwork quite by accident when I was doing some genealogy research. Maine artist Tim Beavis' dunescapes have had my attention for several years now. I love--LOVE--the small town images created by New Hampshire artist Stacey Durand. Maybe I'll do more work in downtown Snow Hill this year instead of "in the highways, in the hedges" like usual. We'll see.