The Month of May

May brings more lush green, wild roses streaming in bunches in pinks, whites, and delicious shades and the iris bloom. This photo is one of my pet rhododendrons that I planted over 23 years ago here. Naturally, when things bloom, I 'borrow' a stem or two for the front porch studio. Call it inspiration! Everything serves as inspiration to an artist: even the bad stuff. Recently, I had to deal with a few things that brought me to a low period. And I decided I was over and done with working in gray-scale landscapes: I would only do them if I felt like it, not because a gallery demanded it endlessly. I picked the brush up, hauled out a blank canvas to the porch and let the day take me wherever it would. One painting became two. Two became three. And, who knows where it'll end. Another new series has been born out of angst. By doing something a bit different and freeing the mind (or what's left of it these days!) I found hope and delight in paint and canvas. The series hasn't yet been named, but I've had a ball coming up with snarky titles. Stay tuned....

"Drown the Choos", Bonnie Joy Bardos

November: Changes of Life & Art

"Storm Warning", 12" x 24", Bonnie Joy Bardos


“...it is a serious thing
just to be alive on this fresh morning
in this broken world.” ~ Mary Oliver

November has arrived, the month that quivers between fall and winter. Here in the mountains of North Carolina, we've had an Indian summer with a long dry spell, warm days, golden leaves. I bought large pots of marked-down jeweled plum chrysanthemums from a garden center, hauled them home in the truck's front seat and plopped the big pots on the front porch. Luckily, because the weather has been dry, warm, bearable: I've been able to extend painting time on the front porch, rather than having to move paints, tables, easels back inside for winter. Yes, I know. It's coming!

The mums rode home up front with me: the seat overflowing with color and spicy scents, the overhead drive home filled with gold, crimson, blue; corn stalks low in dusty fields, a reminder of long-ago childhoods. All things change, as does life, art, our perceptions of things. Yet, truth remains the same. Something to think about.

Here is a new painting, still in progress, but nearly completed...inspired by colors from a fall day, the hint of a storm on the horizon. Shades of lush plums, blues, and images live in those endless depths. Like the changing sea, skies overhead hold multitudes. And, so do we.

Songs of the Earth: Art Exhibit Through May 16

"Songs of the Earth" has been hung, labeled, and is almost ready--lighting will be adjusted, and I'll have a little rest after all that! Thank goodness for good friends Pat and Dom Ferullo who helped hang paintings yesterday; for Cinda Austin and Chet Chavez planning refreshments, Gary Corn and James Blanton for wine--reception eve. This show runs March 31 through May 16 at the historic Tryon Depot/Millard & Company, 22 Depot Street, Tryon NC. Open weekday business hours from 10-5. The opening reception will be April 8 from 5-7 p.m. It's dedicated to my long-time friend Biddie Dawson, who has been like a mother, sister, dear friend ever since I moved to Saluda. Hope to see you at the opening!

"Songs of the Earth" Gallery Show

Songs of the Earth features new paintings inspired by spring. All winter, I painted large canvases, even on days when paint froze and light was dim. These works are filled with joy, color, delight in the Earth and all her beauty.

Poppies bloom, branches, vines, fruit, fiddlehead ferns and stalks of flower pods emerge. Lotuses spike from water, circles of life and line float. Bamboo shoots, bees, butterflies, birds, tree frogs, words appear magically. Some works feature Moon Hare and haloed birds. They're all connected: as we are--to Mother Earth. Themes of my long time love of Jungian symbology intertwine.

Thanks to a Regional Artist Project grant from the Arts Council of Henderson County, in cooperation with the North Carolina Arts Council (a division of the Dept. of Cultural Resources) and the Tryon Fine Arts Center, etc. I was able to purchase several 48" x 60" canvases for the series "Songs of the Earth". I hope the gratitude I feel for this and life shines through.

The opening reception is April 8 from 5-7 p.m. at Millard & Company's Depot Gallery room on 22 Depot Street, Tryon, NC, 28782. The show runs March 31 to May 16, open business week hours to the public.

December Painting & Musings

"I am the product of long corridors, empty sunlit rooms, upstairs indoor silences, attics explored in solitude, distant noises of gurgling cisterns and pipes, and the noise of wind under the tiles. Also, of endless books." ~ C.S. Lewis

This is a new painting I started last week when outside on an unseasonably warm (over 50 degrees) Saturday afternoon here in the mountains. Yes, I completely missed our small town's local holiday tailgate market. Sometimes the life of an artist diverts and darts down narrow side paths: good intentions turn into other kinds of good intentions. While I'm sure the tailgate market did just fine without me, I missed the socializing and stocking up on cold weather vegetables and goodies. Perhaps when the muse is upon us, we just have to go with it. I keep going, muse or not. Sometimes art itself is the muse, perhaps! Sometimes it's those empty sunlit rooms, solitude, wind under the tiles. And endless books. O, muse, you have many faces.

This month, I'll have informal open studio Saturdays, weather permitting, from 1-3 p.m.; although it's always a wise idea to call ahead. Just in case the muse has called me to the tailgate market. Happy Holidays from River dog and me to you.

November Painting & Thought

Landscape painting (10" x 20"), Bonnie Joy Bardos, 2015

“There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening, that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and will be lost.” ~ Martha Graham

This is the week of Thanksgiving, when families and friends gather and count blessings. November has, like all this year, flown by on feathers of a whisper, all too fast. Cold weather has arrived, but I find a tease of warmth outside in afternoon sun. Here's one of my latest paintings I've worked out on the back deck on. Influenced by Mother Nature herself: colors, breeze, feel, the heart and brush work peacefully together. River dog lies under my feet as we both move with the all-too-quickly moving sun, as she sinks lower and lower daily over the tree line. We watch these things, the lengthening purple of shadows. I don't tend to paint actual scenes like many do, but choose to filter all the places and thoughts into something more metaphysical. It is. It isn't. It is! Inhaling views, trees flashing by on winding back roads, sun flitting down through evening light...I just try to catch the moment, the feel. Then put it to the canvas with all my heart.

September Musings

The light passes
from ridge to ridge,
from flower to flower—
the hepaticas, wide-spread
under the light
grow faint—
the petals reach inward,
the blue tips bend
toward the bluer heart ~ excerpt from "Evening" by H.D.

Painting: Evening Gold: 20" x 30", Bonnie Joy Bardos

**I thank Golden Paints for their generous supply of Golden Acrylic mediums and paints in conjunction with their Artist Seconds Program. For years, I've belonged to this program for working artists, and benefited immensely from being able to obtain a wonderful array of various materials they've shared.**

"Songs of the Earth": New Paintings

These panels depict the magic of Mother Earth: seed pods, cattails, lilies, fiddle-head ferns, berries, sky, water, vines...more...do you hear the songs? This new work consists of three panels, 24" x 24" each, and can be hung with all three together, as two, or even one in the same room. All part of the series, "Songs of the Earth", this series will continue to expand and bloom, even in fall, winter. While these colors seem very summery, on a fall day with the golden leaves outside, they're beautiful! As ever, I fall in love with each painting I do, they're like my children, but intended to set forth into the world when I've finished the work of creating them!