Brushstrokes

Invitation

nobody@vox.com(Charmagne Coe) — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 15:55:52 -0700

Holland Studio
presents

The Art of Charmagne Coe
Friday, August 1st, 2008
5 - 9 pm
113 N. San Francisco, Suite 211
Flagstaff, AZ

Me dear and close friend, Molly Holland, will be hosting me in her art studio. She will concurrently have a show at Black Hound Gallerie, presenting her beautiful artwork.

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Chroniques d’atelier du 21 juillet 2008

nobody@vox.com(Han Ly) — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 09:24:09 -0700

Aujourd'hui, j'ai repris le visage de ma belle aux bains. Je le trouvais trop rond, j'ai aussi cherché à trouver le bon volume des cheveux. J'ai aussi repris la ligne épaule - sein côté bassin. Maintenant, je vais devoir retravailler et préciser les cheveux, et il y a aussi un truc qui me gêne dans le visage, c'est le haut du nez, la partie entre les yeux et les sourcils, qui a l'air trop plate. Je retoucherai tout ça dès demain. Mais, pour le moment, on en est là:

J'ai également remis sur le grill «Endormie» qui me semblait trop froide. J'ai donc recouvert toute la partie du corps d'un glacis un peu chaud. Et je n'ai pas pu m'empêcher de mettre quelques touches de blanc supplémentaires là où ça me semblait manquer, de reprendre le vase, le nounours, les livres, les draps et le polochon…

A vous qui passerez par là, une excellente semaine ensoleillée.

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La Belle aux bains dormant

nobody@vox.com(Han Ly) — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 05:49:52 -0700

J'ai repris ma Belle aux bains dormant. Elle était toute écorchée. Un accident de stockage, de séchage mal organisé. Je n'ai pas vu qu'elle prenait appui sur une autre peinture et voilà ! quel gâchis !

Alors, pour mémoire, vais vous montrer comment elle était, avant l'accident.

Les dégâts:

J'ai donc commencé par essayer de retoucher ces traces blanches. C'est pas simple, la peinture est complètement partie, il y a donc comme un trou dans une épaisseur de couleurs superposées… il faudra plusieurs passages de couleurs pour réparer tout ça et je ne suis pas sûre d'y arriver sans que ça ne laisse des traces. Je ferai de mon mieux.

Et il est arrivé quelque chose d'incroyable… elle s'est réveillée ! Vous ne me croyez pas, hein ? Et pourtant, si je vous le dis…

Très bonne journée à vous qui passerez par là et merci de votre visite !

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Loose hands

nobody@vox.com(Charmagne Coe) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 10:30:46 -0700

I did a lot of painting last week and I feel that my hands are getting a bit restrained, which, for me is not a good thing. It's important to keep my hands pretty loose because I like those contour lines to really flow, whether painting or drawing. The best way I've found to do this is to sketch and sketch and sketch... which is so much fun, because that is my first love: drawing. The other cool thing about keeping a practice of drawing is that it releases lots of thoughts and ideas which may translate later to painting. The following are a group of sketches from the last couple of days.

Sketches

In the next post, I will send out my invitation to y'all for my August show in Flagstaff... still working out the details and graphics and such. It's fun to plan and I've kept any stress at bay by doing a bit of work on it each day and letting it flow.

Another exciting bit of news is that my local events newspaper, Flag Live, did a cover story on my art and it went out yesterday! I think they did a wonderful job and I'm really honored to have worked with Flag Live's nice folks. ;-)

00COVER1429_thumb

Hope you all are having a great day and enjoying the summer while it lasts. Here in Northern Arizona, monsoon is in full swing, so the weather feels more like San Diego. I don't mind that one single bit!
Take care!

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Pull me apart, put me together

nobody@vox.com(Charmagne Coe) — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 21:52:11 -0700

A sketch I did a while back has been tickling my dreams, floating in and out of my mind at the oddest times... I finally up and painted it this weekend while the little ones napped and hubby worked on college courses. This is yet another one that was kind of born from thinking about this existential life, how things can trap us, hurt us, shock us. How those very difficult turns in life can actually be the beginning of another more beautiful path if we just continue to be honest and see things for what they are. Like the layers of an onion, I think honesty and transparency of character can evolve day to day with each new bit of understanding we have about humanity. I know this is a very meandering post, but that is kind of how I am the last few days. These thoughts just flow in and out in a rather stream of consciousness sort of way. I know we are the same on many levels, you and I, though we may have different paths, interests, life stories - I think we all get broken and put back together in some way or another in the course of living. I think of these breaking down/rebuilding times as "interruptions" in life and how they are critical times of learning and loving, maybe being (brutally) honest. I can think of events that have left me nothing to learn or feel in the moment of happening, and so I buried my head, wrung my hands. But each new day has a way of bringing more illumination. The idea that life is actually working on me with its own life force is interesting and something I want to think upon for while. It's there that I feel a sense of the divine.

"Reconstruct", 12 3/4" x 10", watercolor combined with ink and pastel.

"Reconstruct"

I have also begun reading The Artist's Way. I'll have to post more on this later.

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These waters

nobody@vox.com(Charmagne Coe) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 23:20:12 -0700

These waters in life are very dynamic, wonderful, strange to me. All of it. Incredible. Rich in experiences. I love being able to ruminate while painting... the complexity of life never bores.

Here are several new works.

"Deserted and found", 10 1/4" x 7", watercolor combined with ink and pastel. This is a study for future paintings.

Deserted and found

Happening

This is "Happening", 10" x 7", watercolor combined with ink and pastel. This is a story of two people from very different cultures falling in love, navigating life, weaving their own tale.

Happening

"Lightly we were walking", 10" x 12 3/4", watercolor combined with ink and pastel.

Lightly we were walking

It is late now and I am off to bed, but I thought I would let you in on the latest. I hope this finds all of you have a great weekend, enjoying your friends, families, loves.

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Love you forever, part 2

nobody@vox.com(Charmagne Coe) — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 22:08:33 -0700

I am now finished with this painting:

"I don't know you yet, but I will love you forever", watercolor with ink and pastel, 140 lb archival paper

16" x 16 3/4".

"I don't know you yet, but I will always love you"

Gathering up my paintings and working out the logistics of displays for the show in August. I think the black foam core will look nice. I just make a tick-list of all the little things that I don't want to forget along the way. There are so many details, but I will try to keep stuff simple. I don't want to over-think this because it is such a fun adventure.

ready, set, go

I will post more later... I am off to read a fun novel I've just started. It's soooo up my alley. Jim Butcher's first in The Dresden Files series, Storm Front. Need a wizard to help you find something, or maybe tackle a murder case, here you go. ;-)

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Interview With Artist Don Sahli

nobody@vox.com(creativespotlite) — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 16:19:07 -0700

Everybody looks for a label. I would like to be known as a painter one who painted what he saw while wandering around on his journey.

Don Sahli made the decision to become a professional artist at a very early age. By the time he was 17 years old, galleries in Texas and New Mexico were selling his paintings. Sahli has earned his living as a professional artist all his adult life. Presently, his work is represented by galleries in Colorado, North Carolina, New Mexico, Wyoming and Texas.

When I look at a painting, I want it to bring me back to when I was on the scene. I want it to convey the drama and emotion that first captured my attention, the atmosphere, and the soul of the place.

Sahli’s work contains stylistic echoes of the Russian masters, particularly evident in his uninhibited use of color, his stern originality and unique vitality. As the last apprentice to the Russian colorist, Sergei Bongart, Sahli sustains an important artistic legacy, one passed from Ilya Repin, the fountainhead of all modern Russian painting, to Nicolai Fechin, to Peter Kotov, to Sergei Bongart to Don Sahli.

My teacher taught, his teacher taught, and I wanted to keep this tradition alive and give something back.

In 1995, carrying on the legacy of his teacher, Sahli opened Sahli School of Art in Evergreen, Colorado. He lives with his wife, Cindy and their two sons, in their mountain home near the school.

Q - What medium or mediums do you work with?

A - I am an oil painter - on canvas or board - depending on the size of the painting and where I am painting - studio or plein air.

Q - How long have you been an artist? How did you get started?

A - I have been an artist all my life. I sold my first painting at age 14 or 15. When I was 17, I took my work to a gallery in Taos, NM, the gallery director accepted it and sold my work for several years. I have continued to show in galleries around the country since that time....

Please click here to read the rest of this Artist Interview....

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I don't know who you are yet, but we will love forever

nobody@vox.com(Charmagne Coe) — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 15:46:59 -0700

I've been purposefully meandering on a spiritual path for several years now. I know there are things that I have left behind maybe for a while, maybe permanently, pieces of religion that confused and debilitated my life. I've come across so many illuminations which have reconfirmed what continues to feel right: the most important thing is to love. Such a simple sentence of words with such a powerful meaning. Yet this gentle phrase about love has been reduced, nay, actually ATTACKED by many religions which pursue power and domination of the very real soul, and in that pursuit have created empires to hate, ethnocentrism, pride and many more negatives which set human against human. There is a path which moves away from that kind of darkness and I think it is an obvious one. Universalism speaks quietly to my heart. In light of all of these most recent thoughts, I continue to paint and think and mull through colors...

Forgive the dullish lighting as it is still in the stuio and not under a proper light source, but you get the idea! This is in progress, "I don't know you, but we will love forever":

I don't know you, but we will love forever

This I finished a couple weeks ago. "Wounded", watercolor with ink and pastel, 140 lb archival paper, 10″ x 7″.

"Wounded"

The above painting was done during this last bout of illness... sometimes all we desire is a sense of that maternal/spiritual energy around us to help and heal.

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Sous le regard du Maître

nobody@vox.com(Han Ly) — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 08:58:07 -0700

J'ai trouvé une superbe photo de Balthus. Je vais l'imprimer et la mettre à l'atelier. Travailler sous son regard… un peu de son énergie va peut-être me faire la grâce de m'aider dans ma recherche ?

J'ai repris mon trompettiste. D'abord, retravailler la tête, la chevelure, la barbe et préciser la forme du chapeau. Travailler la main et la trompette.

Puis les finitions. La queue du cheval, la barrière, le dossier de la chaise roulante. Je me demande… terminée ? Alors, comme je me connais, je ne décide rien d'autre que de la placer en observation sur le chevalet de séchage

et, petit rituel de fin de tableau: gratter la palette, pour mieux repartir sur un nouveau projet.

Bienvenue à vous qui passerez par là.

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