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Showing posts with label mindfulpractice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mindfulpractice. Show all posts

News - Personal Announcement

I posted some news on my instagram -- I’m thrilled to share that I’m pregnant and about to give birth sometime this week. My wife and I are over the moon! Read more, see some photos, and follow me there.

To donate to support my work & studio practice, click here. To donate or apply to my Mindful Studio Practice Scholarship, click here. To get my painting in your inbox, sign up here.

Still Life with Figs, Pecorino Romano Cheese, and Temmoku Bottle (the light, the shade) (larger painting)


Still Life with Figs, Pecorino Romano Cheese, and Temmoku Bottle (the light, the shade)
oil on linen on panel, 2023, 11"x14"
Sold - Private collection

"Art after all is but an extension of language to the expression of sensations too subtle for words." ~Robert Henri

This new larger still life was inspired by an 11x14" painting I did 10 years ago in December 2013, Still Life with Figs, Bleu Cheese, and Temmoku Bottle (the light, the shade), which you can see here. The 2023 composition is loosely a mirror of the one from 2013. If you enjoy this painting, you may also like to see a bunch of my paintings of cheese or bottles or figs, or other paintings in my "the light / the shade" series inspired by the poetry of Robert Lax.

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Two Golden Pears (present moment)


Click to view auction 
(3 day auction ends at ~4:30pm on Tues. 8/1)

"It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?" ~Thoreau

If you enjoy this painting, you may also like to see still life with copper pot and pears (the light, the shade) (2017) [Available as a signed print HERE], Pear with Antique Pewter Mug (2021), Hand-picked Pear with Leaves (present moment) (2021), or a bunch of my paintings of pears or paintings from my present moment series.

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Still life with Delft Vase and Blackberries (the light / the shade)

Still life with Delft Vase and Blackberries (the light / the shade)
oil on linen on panel, 2023, 4"x5"
Sold - Private collection

"The object isn't to make art, it's to be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable." ~Robert Henri

If you're interested, learn more about and see my paintings from my "the light / the shade" series painted during my residency on this islands of Patmos and Lipsi, Greece in 2017. You can also see other paintings from my the light / the shade series here. 

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Tart Cherries with Leaves (the light / the shade)


Click to view auction

"There is no art without contemplation." ~Robert Henri

If you enjoy this painting, you may also like to see Still Life with Cherries, Silver Bowl, and Dutch Cheese (present moment) [available as a signed print HERE], Still Life with Four Cherries on Marble (2016), or a bunch of my paintings of cherries.

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Three Peaches on a Blue Block from Patmos, Greece

 
Click to view auction

"To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of the arts." ~Thoreau

I am back to posting a few smaller auction paintings, and will also be sharing some of the larger works that I've been focusing on. 

If you enjoy this painting, you may also like to see pear on a blue block from patmos, greece (the light / the shade) (2018), which is available for sale (just email me). You may also like Two Pears on Blue Block from Patmos, Greece (Yin & Yang) (2018), Fortune Cookie with Blue Block from Patmos, Greece (2017), or a bunch of my paintings of peaches or this blue block from Patmos, Greece. If you want to read some other quotes I've posted, those can be found here.  

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Still Life with Pear and Silver Cup

Click to view auction

Just sharing a bit from Siddhartha in relation to what mindful studio practice means to me:
“The river has taught me to listen; you will learn from it, too. The river knows everything; one can learn everything from it.” 
“Have you also learned that secret from the river; that there is no such thing as time?”
“Yes, Siddhartha,” he said. “Is this what you mean? That the river is everywhere at the same time, at the source and at the mouth, at the waterfall, at the ferry, at the current, in the ocean and in the mountains, everywhere, at that the present only exists for it, not the shadow of the past, nor the shadow of the future?” ~ Excerpt is a conversation between Siddhartha & Vasudeva, pp. 105-7, Siddhartha, by Herman Hesse, 1922.
If you enjoy this painting, you may also like to see Still Life with Silver Creamer, Clementine, and Cranberries (Live Demo Painting, 2020), Still Life of Peonies in a Silver Pitcher (with Self-Portrait Reflection) (larger painting, 2022), or a bunch of my paintings of pears or silver objects.

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Still Life with Red Grapes and Bowl (with Self Portrait Reflection)

Sold

for you to see beauty here
does not mean
there is beauty in me
it means there is beauty rooted
so deep within you
you can't help but
see it everywhere
—Rupi Kaur, milk and honey (2014), photo of book page here

Related to my postings on mindful studio practice, I recommend the work of Rupi Kaur, who is a poet, artist, and performer. From her site: "As a 21-year-old university student Rupi wrote, illustrated and self-published her first poetry collection, milk and honey... [which] takes readers through a journey of the most bitter moments in life and finds sweetness in them because there is sweetness everywhere if you are just willing to look."

If you look closely, in the bowl you can see my self-portrait reflection. Here are a bunch of my paintings with self portrait reflections. 

If you enjoy this painting, you may also like to see Still Life with Jug, Cicada, Grapes, and Hazelnuts (the light / the shade) (2018), greek bottle, hand-picked grapes and grape leaf (the light / the shade) (2017) [painting available; also AVAILABLE AS A PRINT], Concord Grapes with Idiazabal Etxegarai (Spanish Cheese) (2017), or a bunch of my paintings of grapes.

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Strawberries on a Delft Plate

Sold

"Let's not shame our eyes for seeing. Instead, thank them for their bravery."
—Joy Harjo, Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings: Poems (2017), photo of book page here

Related to my postings on mindful studio practice, I recommend the work of Joy Harjo, an internationally renowned performer and writer of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. She served three terms as the 23rd Poet Laureate of the United States from 2019-2022. Read more at her website. 

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Still Life with Cherries and Silver Creamer (with Self Portrait Reflection)

Sold

"Each human is a complex, contradictory story. Some stories within us have been unfolding for years, others are trembling with fresh life as they peek above the horizon. Each is a zigzag of emotional design and ancestral architecture. All the stories in the Earth's mind are connected." 
—Joy Harjo, Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings: Poems (2017), photo of book page here

Related to my postings on mindful studio practice, I recommend the work of Joy Harjo, an internationally renowned performer and writer of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. She served three terms as the 23rd Poet Laureate of the United States from 2019-2022. Read more at her website.

If you look closely, in the silver creamer you can see my self-portrait reflection of sorts. Here are a bunch of my paintings with self portrait reflections. 


If you like instagram, follow me @abbeyryan8 to see more #mindfulstudiopractice poetry and photos I share, in addition to my paintings. On facebook, find me here.

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hope (Stacked Blocks)


hope (Stacked Blocks), oil on linen on panel, 2020, 8"x6", $2000 unframed (available framed by request)
AVAILABLE - This painting is larger than my typical auction paintings and is available for a set price (with the option to "buy it now" or "make your best offer")
View listing to BUY NOW or MAKE AN OFFER
*If you don't prefer to use eBay, email me [abbeyryan@gmail.com] to purchase or make an offer.

"Stillness means being effortless. When we are still, we are not making an effort. Not an effort of the will.... We are entering into this effortless and totally natural state. The ego, which is always trying to do things full of effort, finds stillness its greatest challenge, because in stillness we stop trying, we stop making these efforts. In stillness, we discover a new freedom, a freedom that lies beyond effort, beyond our egocentric wills: the effortless being, of being in harmony with the flow of life."  ~Aspects of Love 2, Laurence Freeman OSB

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Two Blueberries on a Wood Block (+ re-sharing a Zen Quote I Like)


Click to view auction

 "Learning without practice is weak. Practice without learning is blind."

 I posted this quote back in 2013 that I first heard it during a Richard McKinney lecture at the Philadelphia Buddhist Association. When I asked him, Richard attributed it to Shin’ichi Hisamatsu, who died in 1980 and was associated with the modern Rinzai Zen movement. Richard shared with me that he first heard this quote in Kyoto at Hanazono University, the only Rinzai Zen-based university. He also told me that the quote actually may harken to a previous source, perhaps from Chinese Chan masters from which Japanese Zen found inspiration.

Richard McKinney (1934 - 2018) was Senior Docent at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology for the Asian galleries. He was a past-president and founding member of the Philadelphia Buddhist Association, a non-sectarian Buddhist educational organization established 1986. Richard served on the Board of Trustees, taught a monthly meditation class, and held a monthly discussion group on meditation.

If you enjoy this painting, you may also like to see Blueberry on a Wood Block (2013) or a bunch of my paintings of blueberries.

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Still Life with Two Pears and Robin's Egg


Click to view auction

“Truth is the offspring of silence and meditation.”

Related to my postings on mindful studio practice, I often read renowned writer Maria Popova's work (my previous mentions here). Her article "Standing on the Shoulders of Solitude: Newton, the Plague, and How Quarantine Fomented the Greatest Leap in Science" explores James Gleick's Isaac Newton (2004). Here is an excerpt from her article:

"James Gleick writes of the young Newton’s plague-driven return home:

'He built bookshelves and made a small study for himself. He opened the nearly blank thousand-page commonplace book he had inherited from his stepfather and named it his Waste Book. He began filling it with reading notes. These mutated seamlessly into original research. He set himself problems; considered them obsessively; calculated answers, and asked new questions. He pushed past the frontier of knowledge (though he did not know this). The plague year was his transfiguration. Solitary and almost incommunicado, he became the world’s paramount mathematician.'" [Keep reading]

If you enjoy this painting, you may also like to see a bunch of my paintings of pears or robin's eggs.

In case you missed it:


Still Life with Hand-picked Apple, Bleu Cheese, and Silver Cup (Live Demo Painting)
6x8 inches, oil on linen on panel, 10 April 2020, larger than my typical auction paintings.
Click to view auction
    For a chance to own this painting: click to view auction.

    More here.

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    To purchase my work, view my Current Auctions and All Available Paintings.

    P.S. Where ever you are right now, I wish you and your loved ones good health and peace of mind. There are many people in need and so many helpers right now -- I want to say thank you to all public health workers and medical professionals. So grateful for your sacrifices and commitment.

    Watermelon (+ Mary Oliver on the central commitment of the creative life)



    Related to my postings on mindful studio practice, I often read renowned writer Maria Popova's work (my previous mentions here). Her article "The Third Self: Mary Oliver on Time, Concentration, the Artist’s Task, and the Central Commitment of the Creative Life" explores Mary Oliver's Upstream: Selected Essays (2016) [the paperback version will be released on October 29, 2019 and I highly recommend it].

    Here is an excerpt that resonated with me:

    "It is a silver morning like any other. I am at my desk. Then the phone rings, or someone raps at the door. I am deep in the machinery of my wits. Reluctantly I rise, I answer the phone or I open the door. And the thought which I had in hand, or almost in hand, is gone. Creative work needs solitude. It needs concentration, without interruptions. It needs the whole sky to fly in, and no eye watching until it comes to that certainty which it aspires to, but does not necessarily have at once. Privacy, then. A place apart — to pace, to chew pencils, to scribble and erase and scribble again.

    But just as often, if not more often, the interruption comes not from another but from the self itself, or some other self within the self, that whistles and pounds upon the door panels and tosses itself, splashing, into the pond of meditation. And what does it have to say? That you must phone the dentist, that you are out of mustard, that your uncle Stanley’s birthday is two weeks hence. You react, of course. Then you return to your work, only to find that the imps of idea have fled back into the mist." [Keep reading]

    If you enjoy this painting, you may also like to see a bunch of my paintings of watermelon.

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    To purchase my work, view my Current Auctions and All Available Paintings.

    Still Life with Dragonfly and Green Grapes (+ "to enjoy with clear wonder")



    I have the best family and friends who are always giving (loaning!) me awesome still life subjects like this dragonfly in perfect condition. If you're curious, dragonfly symbolism relates to wisdom of change, transformation, adaptability in life and learning through experience. It is a symbol of joy and lightness, and having a deep connection with your thoughts and emotions. Dragonflies can remind us to bring lightness and joy into life -- shining our true colors.

    Related to my writings on mindful studio practice and posts about "seeing":

    "...There is an ignorance that is best described as an unknowing or what Keats called a ‘negative capability’, the ability to see without trying to analyze or explain, to enjoy with clear wonder. It is the unknowing that we practice in meditation when we lay aside solutions to problems that arise... or bright ideas that we want to grab and remember or fantasies we want to indulge. In this apparent ignorance we enter true knowing. In this apparent, wasteful loss we discover that what we lose comes round again." ~Laurence Freeman OSB

    If you enjoy this painting, you may also like to see Still Life with Jug, Cicada, Grapes, and Hazelnuts (the light / the shade), PB & J, redux, or a bunch of my paintings of insects.

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    To purchase my work, view my Current Auctions and All Available Paintings.

    Two Bosc Pears with Bird's Egg (+ Mozart's daily routine)


    Two Bosc Pears with Bird's Egg
    oil on linen on panel, 2019, 7"x6"
    Buy It Now or Make Best Offer

    This painting is available for a buy now/make offer price because it is larger than my typical auction paintings. ("Make Best Offer" is easy and lets you offer a price you're willing to pay to secure your purchase of this painting. I can then accept, reject, or counter your offer.) Framing is available upon request after auction closes.

    --

    Related to my postings on mindful studio practice, I often read renowned writer Maria Popova's work (my previous mentions here).

    Here's a bit from her piece on Mozart’s Daily Routine: 'How a day is composed in the hours between sleep o’clock and symphony o’clock.'

    "'The patterns of our lives reveal us. Our habits measure us,' Mary Oliver wrote in contemplating how our routines give shape to our inner lives. This, perhaps, is why we’re so transfixed by the daily routines of great artists, writers, and scientists — a sort of magical thinking under the spell of which we come to believe that if we were to replicate the routines of geniuses, we would also replicate some dimension of their inner lives and, in turn, their outer greatness....

    "[Mozart:] I am writing this at eleven at night, because I have no other leisure time. We cannot very well rise before eight o’clock, for in our rooms (on the ground-floor) it is not light till half-past eight. I then dress quickly; at ten o’clock I sit down to compose till twelve or half-past twelve, when I go to Wendling’s, where I generally write till half-past one; we then dine. At three o’clock I go to the Mainzer Hof (an hotel) to a Dutch officer, to give him lessons in galanterie playing and thorough bass, for which, if I mistake not, he gives me four ducats for twelve lessons. At four o’clock I go home to teach the daughter of the house. We never begin till half past four, as we wait for lights. At six o’clock I go to Cannabich’s to instruct Madlle. Rose. I stay to supper there, when we converse and sometimes play; I then invariably take a book out of my pocket and read…" [Keep reading]

    If you enjoy this painting, you may also like to see a bunch of my paintings of birds' eggs.

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    Two Abate Fetel Pears (+ "The Summer Day")


    Click to view auction

    If you're interested, some say this is poet Mary Oliver's most well-known poem; from her collection, House of Light:

    "The Summer Day"

    Who made the world?
    Who made the swan, and the black bear?
    Who made the grasshopper?
    This grasshopper, I mean-
    the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
    the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
    who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-
    who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
    Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
    Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
    I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
    I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
    into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
    how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
    which is what I have been doing all day.
    Tell me, what else should I have done?
    Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
    Tell me, what is it you plan to do
    with your one wild and precious life?
    —Mary Oliver

    If you enjoy this painting, you may also like to see a bunch of my paintings of pears.

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    Thanks in advance,

    Pear and Bumble Bee (+ reverence for living things)


    Click to view auction

    "I do have a great reverence for life, and living things, and I think that I can draw things with that reverence." ~Tomie dePaola

    If you're interested, that quote is from this video interview with Tomie dePaola about his recent children's book, Quiet. Kerry Weber's review of the book reads: Quiet "serves as both a meditation and an invitation.... In Quiet there is more sage advice for children. As they walk through nature, the grandfather makes a suggestion to the grandchildren: 'Let’s not be so busy. Why don’t we sit here, you next to me?' The final image is the three figures sitting on a bench, looking in the same direction. The scene serves as a beautiful reminder of what it means to be present to one another..."

    If you enjoy this painting, you may also like to see a bunch of my paintings of pears or bees.

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    PB & J Half


    Sold

    If you're interested, I recently took an online course on intuition. As an artist, I found the topic to be so fascinating and useful -- learning more about how intuition works and where it comes from, how to tell the difference between intuition and emotion, how to trust your inner voice, and much more. I enjoyed thinking about how it all fit in with how I engage with my painting work and my interest in mindful studio practice. I also liked that the course format included audio recordings and live teleseminars that I could listen to while painting.

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    Still Life with Sugar Bowl and Peach with Leaf (+ Van Gogh on talking vs. doing)



    Related to my postings on mindful studio practice, I often read renowned writer Maria Popova's work (my previous mentions here). As I spend studio time thinking about the relationship between ideals and practice, Popova's piece on "Van Gogh on Principles, Talking vs. Doing, and the Human Pursuit of Greatness" addresses this. She begins:

    "Albert Camus memorably admonished that those who prefer their principles over their happiness remain unhappy, suggesting that such rigid personal dogmas at the expense of actionable happiness are a form of especially dehumanizing self-punishment. Nearly a century earlier, Vincent van Gogh (March 30, 1853–July 29, 1890) explored this disconnect with great wisdom in a letter to his brother Theo, found in the 800-page treasure trove Ever Yours: The Essential Letters."

    Later in the article:

    "[In a letter to his brother, Van Gogh] considers the relationship between abstract principles and concrete actions — the disconnect between the two often produces self-righteous hypocrites who, despite their holier-than-thou air, are no better than those Parisian artists:

    'Don’t think that I look with contempt on people such as you describe because their life isn’t founded on serious and well-considered principles. My view on this is as follows: the result must be an action, not an abstract idea. I think principles are good and worth the effort only when they develop into deeds, and I think it’s good to reflect and to try to be conscientious, because that makes a person’s will to work more resolute and turns the various actions into a whole. I think that people such as you describe would get more steadiness if they went about what they do more rationally, but otherwise I much prefer them to people who make a great show of their principles without making the slightest effort to put them into practice or even giving that a thought. For the latter have no use for the finest of principles, and the former are precisely the people who, if they ever get round to living with willpower and reflection, will do something great. For the great doesn’t happen through impulse alone, and is a succession of little things that are brought together.'" Read more.

    If you enjoy this painting, you may also like to see some of my other paintings of peaches.

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    To purchase my work, view my Current Auctions and All Available Paintings.

    Thanks in advance,
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