Pastel over Watercolor
Pastel over Watercolor
The original of this piece was commissioned by Turner Classic Movies as part of their 20th anniversary celebration and was exhibited at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel during the 5th Annual TCM Classic Movie Festival.
“Alfred Hitchcock’s classic film, Vertigo, is the story of a man’s obsession with an unattainable love, a woman who doesn’t exist. Twice in the course of the film, she is transformed into the object of a man’s compulsive desires; first in order to carry out an evil plot of another’s greed, then in order to have a second chance to recapture and reincarnate what he believes he’s lost in order to save himself.
“I painted the blonde hair of the fantasy object of desire, Madeleine, as it begins to unravel from its core, creating a vortex of delusion. As Madeleine’s impostor, Judy submits again to being made over in the image of obsession, this time in return for love, not money. This reality proves unsustainable; her facade begins to crack, mistakes are made that set in motion a storm, which irrevocably threatened everything in its blonde, illusory path.”
Pastel over Watercolor Underpainting
“When I’m not sure what I want to paint, I rely on my underpainting to give me inspiration. It excites my senses to watch the colors flow to and fro as I move the surface. It satisfies my desire for freedom. I often make a game of it to decide where I want to go next. Like when I was a child playing with a ouija board, using unconscious thoughts and feelings to guide your hands and fingers – so I did that with this painting. First it led me to a waterfall which you can still see, especially on the upper right side of my painting; then the water parted and it led me to her – a lovely young girl looking back at me!
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Pastel
“A friend sent me a photo she took that looked like a horse running in the clouds – and soon my daydreams took over. I journeyed, and painted the canyons of my mind where I found my young stallion at the corner of my mind’s eye, waiting to take me out of this world. I was able to see myself lying back low along his hind quarters; my hair sweeping against his hocks seemed to spur him on. Hoofs pounding and feathers flying, we joined others on a golden bird that took us on a flight beyond Earth’s boundaries and into the Heavens!
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Pastel
“Over so many years I have lost too many four-legged loved ones that I thought I could never live without, yet I survived. Maybe being married to a large animal veterinarian helped me to accept the inevitability of their loss as part of the cycle of life. I was able to move on, trusting that the time and place would come for all of us to be together again. It has never been easy, yet I was left with all those incredible memories to relive in my mind…and the possibility to paint them!
This pastel is of Hunka Hunka, my happy Haflinger driving horse and good friend; he thinks he is living in the pastures of Heaven right now. I painted him rolling in a field of wild forget-me-not flowers…where I shall always, always picture him forever more!”