Open Space & Skies - Collection Review #3

Okay, onto Art Collection things…

 

Speaking of SPACE … The OPEN SKIES Collection, released in March 2023, was inspired by walks at a wide-open-spaces place named Steigerwald Reservation, and pure peace at the beach with my husband. I also took reference photos while at Bandon Beach, Oregon with my grandma (she was 99 at the time, she's now approaching 103).

 

 

 

One day while walking at Steigerwald, looking out across the grasses and water, I told my husband that I wanted to sit on the bench, in silence. We closed our eyes and listened. 

 

My chest filled up with the space and the serenity and the quiet, and then the colors: expanses of warm and cool and muted tones of grass and sky. I was filled with inspiration. I can still feel this when I think about it now.

 

ForEVER my paintings have focused on close-up moments of mother and child or family. Close contact with skin and hair, eyes and kisses... But in that moment I needed DISTANCE. I ached for space.

 

Not long after, we took an anniversary trip to the Oregon Coast. One afternoon we sat with our feet up on the deck, eating nuts and chocolate from the candy shop. 

 

He was reading and I was sketching people down on the sand, the way the waves caressed the shore, and how the horizon blended with the sky.

 

 

PURE peace is how I describe it. The temperature was perfect, the company was perfect, my kids were at home safe together. We’ve gone back and done this same trip since then, just to try and recapture the feelings. The sweets shop was closed the second time, but we made do 😊

 

These experiences of open spaces fertilized and encouraged the Open Skies Collection. I LOOOVVVEEED creating these. They felt so freeing and different. I also felt VERY challenged by these pieces.

 

I felt like I was crawling out of my skin, at times. These paintings pushed and pulled me HARD. Sometimes I stood at the easel and cried because I couldn’t get my hands and brushes to capture what I FELT inside. 

 

 

I can still feel this feeling when I think about it now. It took many many layers of color, then wiping out those colors with softer colors, again and again, until I felt like I had ‘it’ for each piece. 

 

 

 

 

I have several favorite pieces in this collection, with the final piece maybe hitting me the hardest: Symphony & Stillness. It felt like grace was guiding my hands for this piece.

 

 

In this piece I allowed myself to capture those little people that I had earlier sketched, down on the beach. The families playing, the kite, the kids as they trickle away from us toward the land in the distance. The sparkles of foam on the ocean.

 

And… can you find 

the hidden friend in the ocean?

(go zoom up here)

 

I hope you can get out there, too, to see bigger portions of the sky, to have SPACE to clear your head, to re-evaluate what matters, to set things right in your mind.

 

Take a notebook and pen and do a brain dump while you are there! So healing.

 

Here are some more faves from the collection - see them all, originals and prints.

 

 

 

The gift this week is for email subscribers only! Become One

 

 

NEXT WEEK: a collection where Every Single Original Painting flew out the door at release time.

 

 

Thank you for being here, I always appreciate you ♥ 

Anything specific you'd like to see/learn/know?

 

Love & Sincerely, Katie