New Direction

©2013 Patricia Scarborough  Hot Start to an August Day  12 x 12 pastel

Greetings Dear Reader -

The Day Trips exhibit is safely hung on the walls of The Burkholder Project. Suddenly I'm without an anchor; no deadlines, no focus, no theme to corral my ideas.

I feel a little like a kid in a candy store. Where do I start?

I enjoyed the challenge of the piece above from the Day Trips series. Could it be a new avenue for me to pursue?

For a long while I've been coveting the lanky spare lines of Nebraska's grain elevators. They are a completely different animal from my usual landscape, yet, in a way, still from the same rural place. Despite their very gritty, dusty machine-like appearance, elevators have a kind of exotic elegance that fascinates me.

I've been trying out some ideas. You get to be the first to see what's been on my easel.

It's not just about the structure of these gigantic insect-looking things. It's about what they represent, their purpose, the time of year...

...birds mysteriously roosting on invisible cables...

the unintended beauty of their architecture...

... the way they bump up against, and fade into, the atmosphere.

©2013Patricia Scarborough  As yet untitled pastel, about 14 x 16

 

It's a terrifically exciting challenge.  Rather than leap into what I know and allowing muscle memory to take precedent, I'm back in the game, wondering what...how...when...

There's no better place to be.

Day Trips Review

Greetings Friends -

If you've been paying any attention at all, you know I opened a new collection last Friday evening at The Burkholder Project with ceramic artist Sharon Ohmberger.  Also exhibiting their work were
Karen Krull Robart in the Skylight Gallery, Susan Hart and Tom Quest in the Outback Gallery, and Albert Maxey and Herschell Turner in the Special Exhibit Room. 

Yes, it's a big place.

I heard many times during the evening, "Hey, you been workin' hard!" 

Yes, I have.

What does it take, exactly, to get an exhibit like this up and running?  It's fairly simple, really.

First, you get yourself a Handsome Husband. Without HH, none of this would be any fun.

 Me and the Big Double H. Thanks for the photo, Mary!

Spend several months challenging yourself to make the finest art you're capable of making.

Then get yourself a friend, mentor and gallery owner...

Anne Burkholder and me

Don't forget the details...

Ready? Pick up from Warren, your Framer Extraordinaire, wrap carefully and deliver to your gallery space!

Be sure to work with a terrific artist and all around delightful person...

Sharon Ohmberger setting up earlier in the week

Ta da!



Open the doors and spend a lovely evening with friends and patrons, who will hopefully become one and the same!





Be sure to thank those folks who work hard behind the scenes making sure you look good:

Anne Burkholder, Lisa Holmquist, Pam King, Warren Cradduck, Handsome Husband and others who put up with my whining...then

spend the next day relaxing and being grateful! 

Day Trips

I've been hard at it, putting the last swipes of  color on canvas for an exhibit I hang in just a few short days.

I'd been struggling with ideas and themes for an exhibit that had been scheduled for several months. You know how it is when you look hard for something and it just doesn't make itself known?  Like Sir Isaac Newton; he spent all that time looking for a good idea without success, then when he least expected, an apple fell on his head and -'poof' - there it was, gravity.

Handsome Husband and I were out for a much needed breath of fresh air early this spring. We'd been cooped up for weeks due to typical Nebraska winter weather; grey, windy and c-c-c-c-cold. On this day, however, the sun shone brilliantly against a warming blue sky and we hopped in the car to see what had happened around the county since the last snowstorm. 

As HH and I drove the roads around our town we saw life rising in the meadows and fields, creeks and river bottoms. Grey turned to gold, pink, coral. Honestly, it's this way every spring and yet, every year it is a delightful surprise; the loveliness that unfolds so often right before our eyes in the routine of our days. And there it was; my great idea.  I had quit looking for a theme, and it was right there in front of me. What I see every day, drive by, through or around in the course of my life. Day Trips.

We plan magnificent vacations and travel for days and fly a thousand miles to see something new, we read of exotic locations that leave us wishing we were anywhere but here. Yet sometimes 'here', that place within a few minutes of home, is lovely too; rich with color, texture and mystery.

 

©2013Patricia Scarborough  Harvested   12 x 12 oil

Day Trips is a call to attention, a kind suggestion that you, I, all of us, tuck our pads, pods, phones and readers away for awhile and lift our eyes to the world in front of us, right where we are.

Day Trips is an exhibit of new work opening at The Burkholder Project in Lincoln, Ne. on July 3rd, and available for viewing through July 31st, 2013.  I'm sharing exhibit space with ceramic artist Sharon Ohmberger. Our opening reception is during Lincoln's First Friday Art Walk on Friday, July 5th from 7 - 9pm. Looking forward to seeing you there!

Day Trips - Abundance

©2013 Patricia Scarborough  Abundance 12 x 12 oil

We've had some fantastic rains here lately. Also some tornadoes, high winds, a little hail, but let's not dwell on that.

This is one of my favorite places to check when I drive west out of town. Across the county line, in a field of tall wavy grass, there is a shallow puddle, a sliver in the grass that reflects the blue sky. 

After our recent downpours  the pond filled beyond capacity, overflowing into the old creek bed.  The entire field felt swollen with abundance and anticipation. And sky.

This will be part of my Day Trips exhibit at The Burkholder Project in Lincoln, Ne.,with ceramic artist Sharon Ohmberger, opening July 5th.  Consider yourself invited.

Shades of Grey

Spring is close, but has not actually made an appearance yet. 

One day it is tantalizingly warm, the next our daffodils are layered in ice and snow.

As hard as it is for human beings to manage these temperature ups and downs, trees and grasses manage the changeover in sublime ways.

Stone cold grey trees merge delicately into silver, then to warming pinks at their twig-tips. Scrubby bushes spike their gnarly branches with clouds of pale flowers. Oceans of sallow grass warm to gold, then green, then a great splatter of wildflowers.

Those few days of uncertain season are my favorites.

©2013Patricia Scarborough 12 x 12 oil  Day Trips Series

 

I'm working on a series of paintings called Day Trips for my July exhibit at The Burkholder Project in Lincoln, Ne.. The point is to focus on the scenes we see near by, within a few miles of home. I used to drive by these old sheds twenty times a week before they were torn down to make way for new construction.  Interestingly, the new spiffy version of this acreage is not nearly as interesting as the old one.

 

As spring makes her full return I'll keep looking for these delightful areas where nature decorates  according to her own palette. 

 

 

 

Cabin Fever

©2013 Patricia Scarborough Cedar 12x12 oil

Handsome Husband and I have been taking short jaunts around the county lately, designed mostly to get out of the house when we're feeling frustrated by grey skies and arctic winds. The balmy weather of spring has a nasty habit of falling on weekdays, or in microbursts between snow storms.

In preparation for our outings I grab hat, coat, mittens, boots - and camera. 

A couple of years ago I created a series of paintings titled One Square Mile. Twenty paintings, the subject matter taken from a single square mile near my home, each piece a square foot in size. That collection of paintings made a wonderful exhibit hanging together in one place, kind of like postcards from home.

 

©2010 Patricia Scarborough Squirrel's Nest 12x12 oil

I'm feeling like these current pieces would make a lovely exhibit as well, a visual diary of sorts of our trips out and about in Fillmore County.

The simplicity of the landscape hear home is rich with texture, color and the shared rhythms of our lives.