Art Trek Open Studio & Santa Fe

"Esto Perpetua: Primal", 48" x 60", Bonnie Joy Bardos

It's time to take that long anticipated trip to New Mexico: blue skies and drying chili peppers swinging in the breeze, Canyon Road and silver mesas in morning sun, turning into gold light pouring into evening. September brings Art Trek open studios when I return: September 24-25; a preview party at the Upstairs Artspace on September 23 from 5-7 p.m. All participating artists will have work displayed in the gallery until October 14. I'll have sculpture, paintings and more at my Art House. If the weather is good, paintings will be displayed in the front Japanese maple/fish pond garden, on the front porch, and on inside the house. Welcome to my world! This painting is 4' x 5', gray-scale and desert tones, finished with a hint of cold wax. It's one of the most striking paintings I've ever done, with many layers. At different times of day, it changes as the light moves...late afternoon and evening brings the fire out from the background.


Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road,
Healthy, free, the world before me,
The long brown path before me leading wherever I choose.

Henceforth I ask not good-fortune, I myself am good-fortune,
Henceforth I whimper no more, postpone no more, need nothing,
Done with indoor complaints, libraries, querulous criticisms,
Strong and content I travel the open road.

~ Walt Whitman, excerpt from "Song of the Open Road, I"

Summer Paths & Art

"Guard within yourself that treasure, kindness. Know how
to give without hesitation, how to lose without regret, how
to acquire without meanness; know how to replace in your heart,
by the happiness of those you love, the happiness
that may be wanting to yourself." ~ George Sand

Late July brings blankets of heavy humidity and heat to the small town of Saluda: here in the mountains of Western North Carolina. There's a magical shimmer to winding roads, a veil of dense green, the cathedral of trees and vines. This is life: a sense of primal. Ancient seas once covered these mountains, now a soft blue sea of sky unfolds to the horizon, where far seas kiss the earth's feet. While I don't love the extremities of summer, I do love the landscape, the feel, the remembering of childhood spent outside on long, lazy days. Lately, I've had to move most of my larger painting projects inside. Some remain outside, such as a bee hive (no bees in it yet!) and small things, but large paintings are now worked on inside unless the temperature drops under 80. More interesting for you might be how I've been working on them at night...even at 10:30 which usually is Netflix movie or good book time before bed. I turn the year-round Christmas light strands on in the vintage kitchen, kick-up WNCW tunes on the stereo, and paint in almost darkness at the old wood kitchen easel. My eyes don't mind the dim yet colorful glowing lights: wonderful surprises happen when I let go of having to have 'enough' light, or wait for the 'right' time to work. There is never going to be the perfect condition. There is no telling what passerby may think...the glow of Christmas lights peeking from old house windows. An artist lives here.


Esto Perpetua: Silver Light, Bonnie Joy Bardos (available at Patricia Carlisle Fine Art, 554 Canyon Road, Santa Fe NM)

Life, Art & Unknown Roads

A delicate gray-scale palette, this painting has been shipped off to Santa Fe, to Patricia Carlise Fine Art, 554 Canyon Road: I've fallen in love with the horizontal format. It's exciting to travel new roads (unless lost on an interstate exit like I was yesterday)! Even bohemian artists may need a GPS or road map, despite their love of the unknown, the uncertain. Life, like a new canvas, is an adventure.

"Where I was born and where and how I have lived is unimportant," wrote Georgia O'Keeffe. "It is what I have done with where I have been that should be of interest."

Painting the Life of an Artist

June arrives in a spill of roses, blue skies, sparkling daisies and birds flitting all around, plus late evening showers that paint green velvet throughout the landscape. I work steadily, sometimes working on sculpture in between bouts of painting. Mornings, I'm out front on the porch, listening to the fish pond fountain trickle peacefully while River dog lazes in the sunshine close by. Evenings, I often move to the back deck, paint awhile, then take time for a glass of wine and peaceful sunset. Today, I finished up a large black and white landscape to ship out to the gallery in Santa Fe. When the gallery 'wants it yesterday', I'm on it. Whether it's someone wanting a small piece or a large one, I don't hesitate or put it off. Serious artists do that: they're doing their best to earn a living, as meager as it may sometimes be. They don't wait until they feel like it. They pull out the paints, the canvas and set about a new beginning. As ever, no matter how exhausted I may be by the end of the day, how sore the feet are, the hands...how covered with paint, I'm just grateful to do what I was meant to do in this world. There's truly nothing I'd rather do more! For those who spend their lives wishing they were doing it, whatever it may be, I say: don't wait. Do it. Do it now, while you can. Make a difference. Give yourself the gift of time, even if 15 minutes a day to do what you love. Now.

Esto Perpetua: Solace Bonnie Joy Bardos, available at Patricia Carlisle Fine Art, 554 Canyon Road, Santa Fe New Mexico

New Year, New Paths: The Life of Art

A New Year has come...and of all the resolutions I could stand to make, only small ones are on the list. Be kind. Blow iridescent bubbles into the breeze of life and let others find that magic. To take joy in the smallest of things: watching bees work among the garden flowers, fresh paint on a new canvas, smiles from strangers, the warmth of River dog's soft bear ears. To keep making art in this world that needs it; this is my journey--not an easy road to walk. It's full of rocks and obstacles...but the easy path has not been for me. Those small joys and the love of many people get me by: we do walk each other home, indeed, to paraphase Ram Dass.
“I do not miss childhood, but I miss the way I took pleasure in small things, even as greater things crumbled. I could not control the world I was in, could not walk away from things or people or moments that hurt, but I found joy in the things that made me happy.” ~ Neil Gaiman, from “The Ocean At The End Of The Lane"

The Landscape: New Work

This is an oil landscape on board, in progress--will be shipping it to Patricia Carlisle Fine Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico after I get the drill out and attach a plein air frame. At this point, my intuition is telling me to quit: so I've buffed a thin layer of cold wax over it, and will let it sit. In putting pieces in a visible spot, they speak more to me about when 'done'. Like life, I just go with the flow, and the art takes me where it wants to go--I'm just a conduit, a messenger.

"If you catch a fragrance of the unseen,
like that, you will not be able
to be contained.
You will be out in empty sky.

Any beauty the world has, any desire,
will easily be yours.

As you live deeper in the heart,
the mirror gets clearer and cleaner." ~ Rumi

New Work: The Landscape

“Everything in the universe is within you. Ask all from yourself.” ~ Rumi

This is a new landscape I've worked on and finished up yesterday: ready to be framed and shipped to Patricia Carlisle Fine Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Last month, when heading to Florida, I stuffed a number of small boards and canvases in my art supply bag--then worked on getting pieces started one balmy soft afternoon spent near the blue sea, the white sands, the soft cypress trees whispering overhead. When I returned home to North Carolina, the pieces all had a similar feel and spirit, as if they'd captured the thoughts of that peaceful afternoon. A kind soul recently brightened my day with a note that my art and musings had made a difference in their day: making a donation through my paypal account for art supplies, etc. Sometimes unexpected gifts transcend and inspire. It's a reminder that I'm not alone, nor are any of us in this world, that goodness and love do prevail. Indeed.

The Landscape: New Work

'Let choice whisper in your ear and love murmur in your heart. Be ready. Here comes life.' ~ Maya Angelou

More leaves tinged with scarlet, gold, russet hues brush softly through the fall grass; the sky today is impossibly blue...colder weather brings a melancholy, a time of remembering to the heart, as it does every year--the changing of all things is constant. Seasons have their time, as do we. This painting is in progress: a gold gesso ground, with layers of oil paint and Gamblin cold wax. Those falling leaves whisper secrets of the road ahead--a underlying desire to pack up and head to parts unknown, to be a gypsy spirit. Yet, as an artist friend of mine reminds me: it's always good to have a place to hang your hat. And your paint brush!