The mountain as an image provides me with many directions. As I view them surrounding me I am watching the light change throughout the day. The feeling they give is of solidity, protection and grandeur. The mountain yoga pose is the basis for all poses and climbing the mountain is a universal challenge. These are some I am currently working on.
Gardening has been my lesson in patience, impermanence, and joy. For I experience all those feelings and more when year after year I return to once again commune with the earth.
After suffering with seasonal outbreaks of what I learned to call PI, I began to look very closely at plants in order to identify and sometimes avoid. This observation became second nature and I have gone on to become an herbalist and master gardener. Now days I recognize this interest as an influence on my painting. Looking closely I view the repetition, design, coloration, structure and shapes that have become part of my vocabulary. See what I mean.....
Startspace gallery in Manchester, VT is opening their Spring Exhibition on March 31, 2018. I will be showing some of the paintings I have worked on this past year.
My surroundings are a constant source of inspiration. Seeing them as both negative and positive form I use the shapes and lines to instruct a changing view. The following are some works from 2005 to 2015.
Most of these are sold. Drawing and painting from live subjects is continually part of the artist's challenge. I return to them often.
It is a joke among painters who live in the country, as one is often asked by viewers "Do you have any barns?" I love the iconic barn structure, it is an American architectural marvel, when you step inside the beauty of the construction speaks of a bygone era. However as a painter I moved on to different concerns after many years of painting them.
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AuthorDona Mara Friedman is an artist with a checkered past, choosing painting as her continual pursuit. Archives
May 2020
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