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Before I start on any design involving a stone, I am used to stare at the stone and revue in my head what design I am about to create for it.   As I was holding this beautiful Turquoise Cabochon I had purchase in a Gem Show last year, I thought of water, maybe a fish on top, a salmon, a swimming trout?  Something from the sea for a bail, a simple design probably.    Then since I couldn’t make up my mind and nothing clicked… I decided to ask the stone!   “By the way…What would YOU like?”    I sat there meditating quietly and waiting for an answer.   After a little while the image of boys jumping over round boulders came in.   A Maasai boy holding a spear kept insisting in my mind’s eye.   Well, I thought, that is just my luck, I don’t know how to draw a Maasai boy, it won’t work for this project anyway, it would be too tall and what else do you have?  Nothing else came.  The stone had spoken… “ Figure it out!”  Now in a rare conversation with the stone, I said:  “Well if that is what you really want, you’ll have to help me then!”

I took my Pentel pencil and pad and started drawing the Maasai Boy as you see it on the pendant; no changes were made even though I know nothing about Maasai boys…

I transferred the drawing, after reducing it a little, on my Argentium Sterling Silver sheet and started cutting the motif with my jeweler’s hand saw, soldered a back sheet that went under the stone, made the Fine Silver bezel for the Turquoise and debated for a long time whether to use red feathers as well somewhere, as the though kept creeping in, but then it would have taken away from the stone and the bail with the boy. 

I prefer simplicity:  “Sorry stone, I also have an opinion!”   I decided to use 14KY gold for the tip of the spear and at the base of the bail and one more solid gold ball in the center on the bottom of the piece that draws you gaze right into the piece.   I am happy with the result and I have to say that a feeling of calmness and gratitude came over me when the project was complete like:  “Hey, thanks for asking, I have been waiting a very long time for this…”

It may seem far fetched to you but what if in ancient times the stone and the boy were inseparable after he found it in it’s raw form, playing around boulders with other boys, way before the cabochon you see now was shaped and sold and made it’s way to me, why else would this image been so eagerly demanding to be shown…

A spiritual journey is forever changing and unfolding despite an omnipresent fear, symbolized by a hidden tiger.    The same fear becoming a source of power, strength and focus when used mindfully.  Will your journey be lost in a never ending field?  Climbing through a lush forest?  Will you follow a river to a mysterious land until you find its source?   Will the sky clear or will it be stormy?

 

“A Journey through Change”, (nearly finished,) will be a demo at my Studio Show this weekend! 

I am looking forward to seeing you there.

 

Walking in the dark,

Going, going,

A flicker of light

No one else seeing,

Not you, not them,

Tiny, minuscule,

Going in the dark,

Gently, gently,

It will not go out,

Smile on it again,

Going, going,

Glowing in your heart,

Little light inside.

 

Marie-Claire Dole

1 / 2 / 2010

 

The Origina Pastel Painting is 12" Square.

 

 

From Subconscious Painting Series “Dream Quest of the Pink Horse”, (Rêveries du Cheval Rose) is the first one.   I am fascinated by the fact that dreams are always very realistic in all aspects, form, color, everything like you see everyday in your life, your mind sees a frog or a horse or a jellyfish just as it is in nature but as soon as you wake up, if you need to paint one of those images, where is it?  What did it look like?  Why was it so clear a minute ago while you were sleeping and now it is gone!    As my night dreams are so numerous and vivid I often remember just about everything and I am exploring with pastel painting the art of RECALLING those images directly form the source of the dream (without Google’s Images’ help…).  Nothing is wrong with doing that of course but that is beside the point as this is not what I want to do.   I want to remember and be there and see and draw what my mind’s eye can remember, bit by bit with patience from the dream world.    By morning - I wish I could paint in my sleep! - ...  I would have a thousand paintings if painting was done as fast as thoughts travel.  

I am excited to be showing "Passing By", my lady in the clouds in the EOS: Goddess of the Dawn. A Celebration of the Feminine for Breast Cancer Awareness .   At the Blue Horse Gallery in Bellingham, WA.   The show opens on October 1st during the Bellingham Art Walk from 6 - 10 pm and continues until the 29th.    

In the same time, I was invited to be showing 5 pastel paintings at LET'S FRAME IT Art Gallery, framing shop and English Market downtown Stanwood, WA during their Art Walk on September 24th in the evening.   My paintings will stay a while longer in the Gallery.  

A few days ago we came back from Japan. 2 weeks of fun that made me feel like I was gone 6 month !   This is a picture of me in a kimono, well the obi part which you won't believe but it actually measures 18 feet long! I was offered to wear this beautiful kimono at a very special wedding we attended in Kyushu at a place called Huis Ten Bosch that is actually a complete dutch town with brick buildings, harbors, canals and locks, hotels, restaurants, shops, wind mills, flowers everywhere and outside of it my beloved Japan, I already know I'll be back there soon.   My head is still in Japan but nevertheless...

This weekend I am holding my Annual Sale and Open House 2009, by invitations, I hope you got yours in the mail, (if not please let me know) and I am almost set up !  It opens at 1pm tomorrow !   I have a lot to show AND I am showing my original pastel paintings as well, I am really excited about it and my house is now just for 2 days, an Art Gallery !   How much fun can that be ?! :-)

They are all I think about.  I am fascinated by clouds.   As I am driving, I study the sky and the colors and the light in the trees deciding in my head what pastel color would match what I see.   Painting is really seeing and noticing.

Painting and drawing I have done since I was a child and later at Art School in La Chaux-de-Fonds I had about 15 hours of drawing per week for 4 ½ years beside jewelry classes and other subjects.    Over the years, I mainly did jewelry design.   I also enjoyed painting with watercolor pencils but I felt that I had not found the right medium for me yet.

When I tried pastel painting at first, it seemed daunting as it looked like you needed so many sticks and all that dust, but the colors, ah, the colors…so bright and intriguing.   I saw extraordinary pastel paintings by John Vistaunet at Gallery by the Bay and was amazed that one could paint such details with pastels. Then I got to see Janet Hamilton’s beautiful pastels and bought a little painting of hers at the Studio Tour on Camano Island.

Last Spring I went to see a Pastel Show at the Blue Horse Gallery in Bellingham and told the owner that I wish I would do pastel too but it was overwhelming to start.   I wanted to paint clouds.   He encouraged me to go ahead and just buy a very few pastels and that I didn’t need to get a 1000 of them to start!    That was the nudge I needed.   One rainy day I dashed over to Dakota Art Supply and got started!  La Conner Art Workshops were offering a class by Teresa Saia on Painting clouds, my dream!   That was last June and this is when I really started to paint.  June 5th 2009!

Oh, very different and a whole lot simpler!   To me, Jewelry has to be functional and I take a great deal of effort to make sure the piece is tailored to the wearer in style and shape.   Even jewelry I create from an idea and not for someone in particular must be easy to wear.  When I hear my customers say – Oh, I wear it all the time - It makes me happy.   Pastel painting gives me joy and a refuge of quiet time and freedom.    Jewelry is serious business!

I completely lose the sense of time, I can paint until 3 am without knowing it and not be tired, it is quiet and the colors are so rich and steady, it is like a treasure hunt to get the color you need.

I love clouds and trees, especially if there is a special mood from the light.  I’ll be going on a trip to Switzerland and another one to Japan soon and I plan to take lots of pictures.

My inspiration has always come from being quiet, sitting at my desk and staring out the window.    If I need to create jewelry for someone then I do the same but I think of that person until shapes and ideas come to me.   I daydream a lot.   Emotions inspire me, from color, from music from joy from fragrances.

Yes, I want to use more texture on the jewelry as if I was shading or coloring.  I have continued the theme of clouds into my jewelry design since clouds are my main painting subjects.   Also my love for detail yet simplicity seem to work for jewelry and pastel painting.

I am thankful and excited to be showing my paintings and jewelry in one show.  Stanwood is a special place for me as this is where I arrived when I first came to this country and where I met my husband.

How exciting, this year I'll be in the middle of the Anacortes Arts Festival in the center of the street facing North- Space 614 C (center).   Between 6th and 7th Street.   Please come and see my new work and chatt !

For more info please check on line at  www.anacortesartsfestival.com .

I am looking forward to a new booth presentation this year as I will be showing a few Pastel Paintings that will complement my jewelry pieces.  I love to paint clouds and for ever study clouds when I am driving, a dangerous new hobby !   I have many Shows lined up all the way to next year, Art by the Bay on Camano July 11-12, Art on the Town in Bellevue July 24-26, The Anacortes Arts Festival August 7 - 9,  then the Fall and winter Shows, I don't want to even think of those yet :-)  I am looking forward to see many of you at any of those shows my dear customers and friends !