Friday, March 21, 2014

It's Showtime!


This next week, the crisp air will still be here, but Macon, GA will be covered in soft pink cherry blossoms.  Folks will dig into the back of the closet for anything pink and all will gather on Mulberry Street to stroll up and down the avenue of art displays visiting with friends and people watching the entire way. 
photo: cherry blossoms


For the artists, many of us have been doing this show for almost 30 years.  We have collected the annual "Cherry Blossom" pin, eaten wonderful Greek salads served from the International Foods Tent and gathered with friends to celebrate life.  Everyone looks forward to adding new to their own collection. 

I delivered a very special original to Mississippi this week.  I have waited to talk about it until the owner had a chance to see it first.  Placing an original in a new home is always exciting.

As the new original slipped from it traveling package, everyone in the room held their breath.  It isn't a huge painting, but it has all the power of a mural. 

I had spent weeks in the "mental" mode of this work.  For weeks I drew and painted in my mind, then made trips to the bayous, back bays and anywhere I thought I could find little bit and pieces to feed my hungry imagination. 
Once I could see the painting with all the colours and emotions in my mind,  I would be ready to begin painting... but not before.

Whiskey Bayou

Looking back, I had sketched, photographed and studied the grand old cypress trees across the Gulf Coast for years... even decades.  I had painted several small works with many of the same elements, but never a large work.  This work had been in the making for over 50 years.

For a moment, the room was silent.  The light hit the canvas and the trees and egrets came to life. 
I stood back and watched the new owners embrace the painting with their eyes.  The silence was exciting.

"It's everything we love," he said.

The wife stayed with the painting for more study.  She soon discovered one of the hidden messages:

We are fearfully and wonderfully made...

Psalm 139:12 

 


Back at the studio, there were several other smaller works of the year....  

 This week, they each will be framed and then packed for the shows.  One by one, they will be adopted out and become an important part of another place and time.  One work at a time will mark and record the artistic history of our land part of the world.

Lamotte Bayou

Articles and blogs across the  web and printed world all echo the same concern that so much of the art world has been altered by outside forces to remove the emotional and artistic quality of fine art.  "art shapes" are mass produced with no personal emotion to cover space on walls, tables and space.  Affordable and disposable, America has been an easy target as the world reduces its standards to the opportunity to cause change and generate an easy dollar with no labor or moral standard.  As the space in our souls becomes vacant and we hunger for substance, we consume more of anything seeking to feed the spirit.
Light Of The Coast

Our homes clutter with cheap stuff.  We soon feel choked by the abundance of stuff and become confused as we drag more stuff home and still feel lacking in satisfaction. Such is the demise of a people removed from a foundation based on value and quality. 

An original oil by Donna Peters.  Subject: Bottoms Road, Panacea, FL
Spring On The Coast

We have filled our lives like we fill our bodies.


Foods with little nutritional value are so easy to consume.  We eat as our bodies call for nutrition only to realize that the new foods lack what we need.  In an effort to meet our needs we seek more of the same old stuff and continue to live in lack.

The St. Marks lighthouse, painted by Donna Peters www.donnapeters.com
Winter On The Coast

If you have been able to get out in the spring sunshine to paint, I know how wonderful you feel. 
If you add a small work of quality art to your home, I hope you are inspired to remove several pieces of the "stuff" that has over taken our world in recent years. 


The Art Forger
by 
Shapiro



If you like to paint or collect art, I have a book to suggest. I have found this book entertaining and very informative.  It is an easy read and yet it is very teaching about art materials and strange things that have taken place in the art world for centuries.

We shared this book with the new owners of Whiskey Bayou.  
"How do we know what we are buying?" they asked.

Know the artist, was Lewis' reply. 

See you at a festival this spring!!



Thank you for sharing my blog with your friends.  

Today is a gift of a lifetime.  Fill it with good for yourself and share it with others.  All it takes is a small and soft word of encouragement with a complete stranger.  The blessings you will receive in return are 'fearfully and wonderfully made....'

Donna Peters










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