Memorable Moments

"Urfer Family Park Path, Sarasota, Florida"

6"x6" oil painting 

by Cindy Mott McGarry

"Art is the creation of forms symbolic of human feeling."

- Susanne Langer

This pathway seemed to literally GLOW! As I walked along this soft, sandy passage amongst it's shady taller shrubbery, the sunlight ahead was just beaming with bright yellow, peach and pink radiance. I still have a very clear memory of it in my mind. It was an explosion of color.

This surreal moment created a moving meditation. Listening to the birds and taking in all of the natural beauty of robust color before me was very uplifting, yet calming. The thought of painting this scene gave me the idea for meditative art. 

Now the use of color takes on a whole new meaning. Color can affect the human state of mind, so what combination of colors create different mental/spiritual meditative states? This question created a new way to approach painting. A new purpose for growth with the use of color.

On with more experimentation!

Live, Love and Learn!

Cindy

facebook.com/cindymcgarryart

Expanding Our Thoughts

"Yellow Sky"

79"x92" oil on canvas by Elmer Bischoff, 1967

"Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere."

-Albert Einstein

While traveling to San Francisco, California this past September, I was fortunate enough to visit the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA). This painting, "Yellow Sky," captured my attention for quite a while. It was very large, so it was easy to feel like you were IN the painting. The bold color, the high contrast and the luminescent light were striking. The viewer is drawn into the bright, loosely painted art. Fortunately, visitors were allowed to take photographs.

Viewing original artwork like this can be very inspiring! Minds can be opened to the imagination of a particular artist at a particular point in time. Getting lost in the technique and brush strokes of a piece can teach and encourage viewers to question and learn new ways of using a medium, of expressing how they see shape, color and light ...

Expanding our thoughts by taking in other artists' work can help us see creativity in a whole new way. If you are a painter, then one painting you experience may change the way you approach your next painting. Learning from other works and unique uses of materials are wonderful ways to be inspired and move forward with newly found enthusiasm!

Happy Fall!

Cindy

www.cindymottmcgarry.com

www.facebook.com/cindymcgarryart

cindymottmcgarry on Instagram

@TheCindyMcGarry on Twitter

Gazebo in Venice Florida

"Centennial Park Gazebo, Venice, FL"

9"x12" oil by Cindy Mott McGarry

"Creativity takes courage." 

- Henri Matisse

There is a plein air painting group called "Lightchasers" www.lightchasersinc.com based in the west-central Florida coastal area. They search out and frequent a variety of places for artists to paint. It is a great way to meet and learn from other artists and challenge your artistic abilities by painting from life. 

Working on location has many challenges. Wind, insects, fire ants, animals, heat and cold, rain ... can sometimes make an artist pack everything up and leave the site. However, plein air painting is more about laying down the composition, larger shapes and values with the advantage of seeing the subject in its true natural form. Then, when the painting is taken back to the studio, the painter can use the help of photos, memory and imagination to finish the piece.

Painting man-made objects is not something I really enjoy, but I took the challenge alongside other Lightchaser artists and painted this "Centennial Park Gazebo" in downtown Venice, Florida. The sun was very bright and the white paint on the structure really created some great contrast and made the gazebo stand out. I got the structure down and fully blocked in the other areas before taking the piece home to finish - adding more details and had some fun with loose color work.

This gazebo painting is currently on display at the Venice Art Center www.veniceartcenter.com in the "Reflections" Art Exhibit until August 17, 2018.

Happy Summer!

Cindy

www.cindymottmcgarry.com

facebook.com/cindymcgarryart

cindymottmcgarry on Instagram

@TheCindyMcGarry on Twitter

Flower Time

"Hydrangea Zoom"

 18"x24" oil on canvas

- Cindy Mott McGarry

"I decided that if I could paint that flower on a huge scale,

 you could not ignore its beauty."

- Georgia O'Keefe

While going through a fascination phase with hydrangea flowers I could not resist examining their beauty on a closer scale. There are so many colors in one single petal. Focusing on shape, color and value helps with decisions that need to be made throughout my paintings. Impressionism and the all wonderful "artistic license" opens up such freedom to use imagination and concentrate on what I really want to see and reveal. 

In this painting using small shapes of color became addictive and highly expressive. Pointillism is a method of neo-impressionist painting in which using tiny dots of different pure colors appear mixed in the observer's eye. This method was started by Georges Seurat in order to create a higher degree of luminescense and intensity of color. I believe certain colors laid next to one another cause a glow, or rather, a vibration of colors.

Until next time!

Cindy

www.cindymottmcgarry.com

Colorful Matter

"Siesta Key Grassy Dune"

9"x12" oil on canvas board
-by Cindy Mott McGarry

"To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow."
- Audrey Hepburn

The abundant butterflies, the lush greenery and flowering plants of Spring are so uplifting. Mother Nature brings artists so many new subjects to paint this time every year. 

Baby birds abound, too. Here in Venice, Florida the tall, lean and elegant Sandhill Crane birds have babies which resemble small, brown, fluffy puff balls that hop around while always being protected by their parents. 

The painting above was created originally en plein air on Siesta Key Beach (voted the #1 Beach in the U.S.!) while standing at my easel under a large tree in the shade. Color, shape and value were my main focuses. I worked on it a few more hours on the days following in my home studio and was pleased with the amount of color that ended up throughout the painting. 

Lightchasers of the Suncoast had their 2018 Shows in March at the Edson Keith Mansion at Phillippi Estate Park in Sarasota, Florida. It was a good opportunity to share this painting for the first time in public. There are over 600 artist members in Lightchasers and only 90 paintings were accepted for the members' show, so I felt fortunate to get into this show. 

Spring is here and it's exciting to imagine more colorful paintings to create - grasses, florals, birds and landscapes come to mind!

Happy Spring!