Let It Be

Patience

This painting evolved from several images I took on a recent trip to the BVIs. The brain coral and seaweed were scattered on the ocean floor and washed upon the beach; the pelican was hidden along the shoreline near the Bitter End, Virgin Gorda.  I meshed the images together into a cohesive whole as I revisited the memories in the process of painting.  I remember thinking how patient the pelican had to be to survive - sitting still and silent until an unsuspecting fish darted his way.  Life couldn't be forced - he had to "let it be" and react to events as they unfolded.  Reminded me of the song by the Beatles...

Windswept

Windswept

Hurricane Sandy brought high winds and rain to most of the east coast and midwest, and I tried to capture that feeling in this oil painting, Windswept.  It is simple but I hope it captures the direction and force of the wind.

Mixed Signals

Mixed Signals

This scene is in the Castro District of San Francisco, a neighborhood with strong LGBT ties.  When I toured the area in February, 2012, the newspaper headlines were about the California courts ruling that Proposition 8's ban on same sex marriage was unconstitutional.  My painting plays on the mixed signals     of the legislatures and courts in LGBT civil rights: stop/go, no left turn, yield..... If you look closely, you will see the newspaper headlines under the painting.

Still Waiting for Godot

Still Waiting for Godot

Rocks, rocks, and more rocks.  Big ones, small ones, red ones, green ones.  Petosky stones. White chicken-egg-smooth stones. Stones in my shoes.  The quintessential northern Lake Michigan shoreline, punctuated with inviting brightly colored plastic Adirondack chairs.  I had to paint it - meshing the perspectives, skewing the scale.  Anyone coming?

Royal Mail

The recent Olympic Games in Great Britain brought back fond memories of my trips to England over the years, most particularly a six week study abroad course at Oxford in 1982.  Back then, all contact with friends and family in the U.S. was via airmail letters, telegrams, postcards, and the rare international phone call. I saved these fragments of international correspondence and used them as the collaged underpainting of this artwork.  "Royal Mail" was stamped on all British airmail, and became the title of the piece. Enjoy.

Mardi Gras Ramble


I recently explored the French Quarter of New Orleans with two dear friends.  My eye was drawn to the beautiful iron scrollwork on the gates and balconies as well as to the historic iron hitching posts and water meter covers.  I imagined myself strolling down these same streets during Mardi Gras, delighting in the music, masks, hats, and song.  This mixed media painting captures that feeling as I entwined collaged images of the ironwork with painted architecture, hats, masks, and beads. Hope you like it.

MOORED

This mixed media fabric/oil painting was inspired by a recent BVI sailing trip.  The young boy's mother sold fabric dresses on one of the islands.  He wanted very much to go on our sailboat, and was sad we wouldn't let him. Circumstance/geography/and socioeconomic issues all tied him to the island and became the backstory of this piece.

Romance Language

The underpainting of this piece is a collage of French grammar worksheets from my high school days.  At the time, I associated the beautiful rhythm of the French language with love and romance.  The bouquet of  poppies alludes to that feeling.  And, of course, I enjoyed the play of the two meanings of "Romance" in naming the work. Enjoy.

Three Sheets to the Wind


Sailing on a catamaran through the British Virgin Islands with friends and family was a fun-filled experience of sun/waves/laughs/cocktails/blistered lips and song-filled nights.   I titled this painting "Three Sheets to the Wind" for obvious reasons.  Let's just say it's easy to end up on your head in the dingy : )!  I hope you enjoy the painting as much as I enjoyed the tilting, rocking, rolling vacation.

  

Japanese Tea Garden II


I was very happy with the result of my first Japanese Tea Garden painting and wanted to try it again, this time focusing solely on the fish.  Like the first Tea Garden, the underpainting contains tea leaves and tea bags.  I extended the length of the canvas to include two more fish; the horizontal expanse draws the eye as if following the path of the koi disappearing off the right border.

Follow

This painting of the Castro District of San Francisco captures the imagery and iconography of the LGBT community there.  I cut up the musical score of Follow the Yellow Brick Road from the Wizard of Oz.  Fragments of music fall from the rainbow flag onto the musical yellow bricks of the sidewalk.The song title  and lyricist/composer is on the marquee of the famous Castro Theatre.  There is harmony somewhere under the rainbow....

Japanese Tea Garden

The koi fish in the small ponds at the Japanese Tea Garden in San Francisco are vibrant orange, gold, and ultramarine blue.  In painting this scene, I wanted to play off these complementary colors and show the wonderful patterns created by the sun on both the water surface as well as the cast shadows of the fish on the pond bottom.  The shadows cast by the fish reminded me of Japanese calligraphy.  For those of you who follow my work, you know my paintings contain fragmented association and memory of the sites I visit; thus, the underpainting is comprised of scattered tea leaves and tea bags, which I fixed to the canvas with acrylic prior to completing the scene in oil.  A small Japanese pagoda and glimpses of the garden are reflected off the water in the upper portion of the painting.

A Long Walk and a Little White Ball

This lonely, lovely cypress is right on the beach of Carmel, CA.  If you walk just a few hundred yards north of the cypress, the Pebble Beach Golf Course stretches down to the sand.  This painting grew out of the juxtaposition of the two and is a fragmented amalgam of imagery linking them. While my cypress is based on an actual tree on the beach, I did find it interesting that Pebble Beach's logo on their golf balls is a graphic tree. The golf ball dimples transitioned well into shadowed sand dips.  Hope you like it.

A "Striking" Image -

During a recent winter visit to the Colorado mountains, I was drawn to this solitary fire hydrant on a little-travelled road.  I loved the solitary splash of red color against the dry sienna grass and blue Colorado sky.  More importantly, its presence reminded me that it was the sole protection for the area against wildfires, and that the very road I walked on was a few hundred yards from a massive fire a few years before.  I incorporated these associated thought fragments into the final painting; the dry grass has actual matches enmeshed in the tangle of grass strands. Enjoy.
Western Sentinel,  20" x 20", mixed media 2012 

Happy Birthday, Columbus!

This year marks the 200th birthday of Columbus, Ohio and the city is celebrating all year.  In response to the momentous event, I created this painting, Columbus Reflections.  It is a mixed media piece that juxtaposes the present and the past.  The city skyline is reflected in the Scioto River, with current events reflecting back in the newspaper clippings.  However, the past rural history of Cowtown is also revealed in the reflections, as the memory of cows suggested by clouds floating over the city. Enjoy.

Chinatown, San Francisco

I just finished Chinatown, San Francisco.  It is a mixed media piece that is painted on Chinese newsprint and features the beautiful red cloth/paper lanterns that hang over the streets of Chinatown in San Francisco.  I was drawn to the brilliant reds and yellows of the lanterns and banners as well as the chaotic atmosphere of the crowded streets.  I hope you enjoy it!

January Sunshine

Today is a cold, gray wintery day in Ohio and my mind keeps going back to this past summer when I traveled to the Italian Amalfi coast.  The steep hills were terraced with beautiful lemon groves laden with huge bulbous lemons.  My senses were overwhelmed: bright yellows,  sap greens, citrus perfumes, blue sky. My taste buds popped with the sweet and sour limoncello syrup.  I tried to capture this feeling in Limoncello, a painting I finished a few months ago.  If you look closely you will see the yellow netting of the lemon bag incorporated on the cut flesh of the lemons, and the lemon label in some of the leaves.

Happy New Year!

This year starts off with a bang for me professionally, as my new website has officially launched!  You can see it with the link above:  www.bevdarwin.com.  It was designed by Evelyn Davis of Davis Walker Creative and is based on my signature used for my paintings. I hope you like it.  The home page rotates to a different painting each time you visit the site.  Gallery One is a collection of my thesis paintings and Gallery 2 is a collection of some of my 2011 paintings.  I have posted one of my 2011 paintings, Desert Reef, on this blog.  It is my response to a trip to Arizona this year.  As I surveyed the desert landscape, the cacti reminded me of underwater staghorn coral reefs.  The two environments couldn't be more different, and I thought the juxtaposition of the two would be fun and visually compelling.  Enjoy!