After drawing out the painting FOUR TIMES!!!  “Reluctant Godmother” is FINALLY on the canvas and I will begin washing  in the sky after I finish with e-mails.
  
I drew out three different compositions on 46” x 68” paper (the size of the canvas) and just couldn’t get motivated to transfer any of them onto the canvas.  I thought it was my general despondency due to being stranded in this part of the country (but I’ve painted 15 paintings so far and have been extremely depressed about being in Oklahoma while painting them all, so that
shouldn’t have been a factor).

All 3 compositions depicted Georgia O’Keeffe in her “later”years, after she had become an American icon of the Southwest.  Apparently, “Georgia” wasn’t pleased with any of those and during a moment of frustration, a totally different direction began to emerge from the ethers as I began drawing the 4th version of “Reluctant Godmother.”  
  
Apparently, “Georgia” wanted to be depicted as the “young and sensuous Earth-goddess” her husband, the photographer Alfred Stieglitz depicted her as at the beginning of her career as an artist, while living in New York City.  As I look at many of her paintings, that “earthy” and youthful spirit continued to be expressed by her on canvas, until her eyes began to fail her (well into her 90’s) and she could no longer paint.  I am now happy with the composition and apparently “Georgia”is too, because I have spent the past few days completing the drawing, transferring the drawing to the canvas and will begin “washing” in the sky and background tonight before going to bed.
 
Depression aside, I am pleased with the direction and “message”of the painting and am FINALLY back at “slinging paint!”


 

Chapter One:
“The First Two Years – July 2009 to July 2011”
 
After living all of my adult life in cities like New York, San Francisco, Dallas, Los Angeles, and an important center for art, Santa Fe, I began the current “Life Chapter”in a location with no “tourist attraction” distractions (maybe that was the important factor for self-activation).
 
On the first of July 2009, I had a conversation with myself, during which time I finally “got” what I had heard others say so many times: “Someday is NOT a day of the week!!!”  So…I faced my fears (“what if I can’t paint or am lousy at it?”), began stretching canvas and started to paint two Collections with Santa Feand its lore as the underlying themes.  I decided to use Santa Fe and its eclectic topography, histories and cultures as the common “thread” for
all paintings - eliminating a common problem among many painters who constantly ask themselves, “what am I going to paint next?”  
  
Not wanting to limit myself to only one painting style, I began to paint two Collections: 1) Realism (“Santa Chi”), and, 2) Combining 
Impressionism, with whatever styles I felt were necessary to convey the message of the painting (“Santa Fauve”).  
 
Once these two Collections are complete I have many other topics and themes I want to express on canvas.  For example, I want to explore further Figurative paintings of Saints, Icons, Deities, etc. – similar to my interpretations of “Brother Sun” and “Our Lady of Guadalupe. I also want to experiment with the various ways I might express a Collection of studies and still life compositions, much in the style of my first Impressionist painting, “Geranium Morning.”

“The Faraway” -  60” x  42” (The Santa Fauve Collection)
 
Between 1929 and 1949, Georgia O'Keeffe spent part of nearly every year commuting from New York City to work on her paintings in New Mexico. Georgia continued to commute until, at the age of  63, she moved to New Mexico where her beloved Ghost Ranch became her primary
residence.  She purchased the property from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Santa Fe in 1945, after attempting to buy it for 10 years.  The house in Abiquiu became her primary residence in 1951. 
 
While living in New York, she often talked about her fondness for Ghost Ranch and Northern New Mexico, as in 1943, when she explained in an interview: "Such a beautiful, untouched lonely feeling place, such a fine part of what I call the 'Faraway'.  It is a place I have painted before . . . even now I must do it again.”
 
Georgia O'Keeffe’s home and studio (Ghost Ranch) is a site significant for its architecture.  She collected rocks and bones from the desert floor and made them and the distinctive architectural and landscape forms of the area subjects in her work. 
  
Georgia O'Keeffe became increasingly frail in her late 90s.  She moved to Santa Fe in 1984, where she died on March 6, 1986, at the age of 98.  In accordance with her wishes, she was cremated and her ashes were scattered to the wind at the top of the Pedernal Mountain, over her beloved "Faraway".
 
I adapted my composition for this painting from a black-and-white photograph of one wing of the main house at Ghost Ranch.  In the original photograph Georgia O’Keeffe is shown climbing down the ladder, which is leaning
against the portal.  Rather than include her image, I have chosen to let her “spirit” be part of this painting.  I have also interpreted the infusion of “energies” everywhere she might have looked – from the
larger-than-life Violet, whose “petals” surround the Coyote Moon, illuminating
the starry night time sky; to the vibrant Mountain Asters and “saffron-colored”
Chamisa, which bejewel the High Desert terrain.
 
My next painting is my homage to Georgia O’Keeffe titled “Reluctant
  Godmother.”  It is the 4th of my paintings of the icons of Santa Fe for The Santa Fauve Collection.

“Brother Sun” - 48” x 60” - The Santa Fauve Collection

St. Francis is the most important icon of Santa Fe and its surrounding areas. Two major American towns were named for St. Francis of Assisi:  San Francisco, California and Santa Fe, New Mexico.  In 1610, when Don Pedro de Peralta founded the site for Philip III of Spain, the official name was “La Villa Real de la Santa Fe de San Francisco de Assis” (The Royal Village of the Holy Faith of St. Francis of Assisi).  The cathedral in Santa Fe, at the east end of San Francisco Street, is the Cathedral of St. Francis of Assisi.

Not only is St. Francis the patron saint of Santa Fe, New Mexico but he was also decreed to be the patron saint of Italy by Pope Pius XII on 18 June 1939.  Following the establishment of his Holy Order, the Franciscans, a religious Order for like-minded women was established by who would later come to be known as St. Claire of Assisi.  From his poem, Canticle of the Sun, Francis and Claire adopted the nicknames Brother Sun and Sister Moon.

Painting styles:  Surrealism, Impressionism, Fauve Impressionism, Realism

Composition style:  Art Deco and religious icon

Composition details:  The familiar garden statue of St. Francis morphs into the “energy” of the actual saint.  His companions in the statue are two doves and a wolf.  These are shown in many garden statues of St. Francis.  From a book written after his death, Fioretti di San Francesco d’Assisi (The Little Flowers of Saint Francis - a florilegium – a collection of excerpts – divided into 53 short chapters) comes the imagery of the wolf (The Wolf of Gubbio) and “my sisters, the birds.”  Of the 5 species of birds that are native to the Umbria region of Italy where St. Francis lived, I have included three:  the Mourning dove, the Black-capped Chickadee and the Blue Titmouse.

In keeping with the Art Deco style of the composition, I have included significant Egyptian imagery for the sun:  both upper corners exhibit the symbol for the Sun God Ra (always shown with open hands at the end of each ray to convey the message that “God only gives and never takes”) and the Winged Solar Disc (the ancient symbol for the eternal soul and later adopted by the Masons, Rosicrucians and the Unity movement, as well as “corporate” images for Harley-Davidson and Chrysler).

The halo around the head of St. Francis is taken from the symbol for the “Solar Cross”, a design often used in Orthodox Christian Reliquaries. 

The most obvious “sun” symbol in the composition is the Sunflower, shown spreading its warmth and message of “always facing the Sun” throughout the garden.

The hand positions for St. Francis in the painting come from an ancient tradition of the priests separating their third and fourth fingers while praying so the blessings of the Divine could be channeled through them onto the earth plane and/or assembled worshippers.

The fourth icon in my series of Santa Fe icons will be my “homage” to Georgia O’Keeffe and will be titled “Reluctant Godmother.”