SOUTH COASTAL GEORGIA, NEW IMAGES

photo by elizabeth Gordon

NEW EXPERIENCES BRING NEW THOUGHTS,

NEW THOUGHTS BRING NEW IDEAS,

NEW IDEAS BRING NEW ART!

Travel alway brings out a new awareness and freshness for me.  Images, smells, sights, sounds that are unfamiliar awaken my senses and then the inner artist comes alive.  Julia Cameron calls it an artist date...one you take with yourself.  I highly advise it...get out go somewhere new, travel a bit, learn a different way, take a fresh path....enjoy!

elizabeth gordon

elizabeth gordon

Monet     Seine River                                                 google image, for educational purposes only

Monet believed that Turner's painting Impression, Sunrise gave its name to the Impressionist Movement.  A view that Monet did of the Seine River in Le Havre compares to Turner's and Monet's own work on the Thames River. 

Turner   London Fog                               from google image for educational purposes only

Monet in London, Turner in London

Impressionist Paint London Harbor

I find it so interesting when painters paint the same image, whether it is in a similar time or artistic style. There are far more examples of that in art history than one would image.  For many years copying a master was a way people learned to paint.  One can still go to the Louvre or other famous museums and see easels set up and students at work.  But when masters artists paint the same image it sends another message I think, other than copying or being a student.  I think it is a way of helping us see the world or visual images in alternate worlds...through the worlds of each artist painting.  We see the world through that artist eyes, through all the education and life influences that led him or her to that moment.  In these two paintings we see similarity, but great differences as well.  Turner and Monet were impressionist, but one is English and one is French.  How do their cultures influence them and their backgrounds.  I think it is worth asking these questions, and looking into the answers.  And that we will do in the next post.  If you an art historian or have knowledge in this area, please feel free to add to the conversation.  We welcome your comments.

Claude Monet   London Harbor                       google image, for educational purposes only

Turner London Harbor                                  google image, for educational purposes only

"The Arts are not just a nice thing to have or to do it there is free time or if one can afford it.  Rather, paintings and poetry, music and fashion, design and dialogue we are as a people and provide an account of our history for the next generation."

Michelle Obama, First Lady

A Walk on the Wild Side

 Rust colored sedge grasses of the Cudo Reserve           photo by elizabeth gordon

South Carolina 

Sun light dancing on the waters of Lake Santee Cooper

A Winters view...too cold for the alligators to sun

 Santee Cooper Lakes

As we drive Southward and leave the big city of D.C. behind, the weather warms, the landscape changes from wild things of urban living to wild things of nature.  Today I saw an Eagle carrying something in his talons flying low...such a rare view and now etched in my mind with other times driving through the Cudo Reserve.  Once an owl flew down and snatched a snake much too big for him.  Watching the ensuing struggle was quite a memorable event as the owl was quite determine to take his dinner home, but to no avail.  15 feet alligators lounge along the lake shores and pileated woodpeckers dart from tree to tree.  I often thing nature may be the greatest art and perhaps our ability to see and appreciate her masterwork makes us the artist as well.

Vertical lines mirror in the swampy inlet 

Not edible just for viewing

Reeded grass inviting a red wing black bird, but not yet

Eating at Good Places Helps the Soul!

Well I am not sure if it is because I am an artist or I just love good food and places with wonderful ambiance, but eating out at a great place does wonders for me.  I would like to say it is my sensitivity as an artist, that notices all the sights, sounds and smells, but it is probably that I just love good food and interesting places.  Old Ebbitt's Grill in Washington D.C. is certainly one!  I went twice in two days I loved it so.  It is old (since the 1800's), reeks of history and politics...all things I love.  The food was fantastic and service excellent.  I would highly recommend it if you happen to be in Washington D.C.

By the way, they had quite an array of art work that was quite nice.  The painting above Ann is of an Oyster Shucker on the Eastern Shore.

Ann and me at Old Ebbitt Grill

you never know what senator or representative may stop by

Saute of seafood salad!!!!  Wonderful!

Washington D.C., SUPREME COURT VIEWS

photo by Elizabeth Gordon    Supreme Court, Washington D.C.

Policeman on the steps of the Supreme Court

IT'S A LONELY JOB, BUT SOMEBODY'S GOT TO DO IT!

These photo's were taken on a very cold winters day on the steps of the Supreme Court.  The sky was blue,  clouds were drifting by and the temperature was in the 20's F.  It had snowed the night before, just a light dusting of powdery snow.  It crunched as I walked up to the steps past the protestors that are ever present.  This particular group was an anti-abortion gathering of very determined people.  On another day it could be a pro abortion group or anti war...it is the right of peaceful protest.  The long shadows caught my attention and the diagonal lines that draw ones eye into the picture and the policeman on the right. 

Determined and cold protestor

young group of women protestors

Art Advocacy Is Always on the Agenda!

Dome of Cannon Building

Visiting the staff of Kathy Castor's Office

Ruby and Anor are wonderful warm staff members who help speed up the duties of a representative of congress.  I stopped by for request for tickets to the senate and house, help with getting a signed certificated from the President for my Mothers' 100th birthday and to plug for the arts and art education as I do at every turn.  Where ever one is, there is always a chance to advocate for the arts and as artists and art educators we should always take the opportunity to do so!  If we don't who will.  I think sometimes artists are more absorbed in their own art and world of galleries that they forget they must help raise young appreciators of art, future artists, and patrons of the arts.  It is a constant job to build connections and educate others who have not been as fortunate as we have been in our education of the arts.   

Standing in front of Kathy Castor's Office

Advocating for the Arts with Staff

Rabbit's Moon studio: IF EDWARD HOPPER HAD PAINTED TODAY

Rabbit's Moon studio: IF EDWARD HOPPER HAD PAINTED TODAY: photo by elizabeth gordon photo by elizabeth gordon If Edward Hopper lived today and painted, what would his paintings have loo...

IF EDWARD HOPPER HAD PAINTED TODAY

photo by elizabeth gordon

photo by elizabeth gordon

If Edward Hopper lived today and painted, what would his paintings have looked like?  We know he painted about how people feeling alone and isolated in urban environments.  How would he view the loneliness that comes with technology and our relationship to what we ironically call social media? Hoppers' paintings were stark and empty, re-enforcing a sense of separation and isolation.  I remember seeing an exhibition of Hopper's work at the Tate Museum in London and coming away completely depressed.  I love his work and how he expressed a sense of what our society brings in some of its most negative aspects.  
I was standing on the metro (underground in Washington D.C.) with friends waiting on the next train when I looked up and saw this lone figure against a plain background. The contrast was wonderful and the eerie light underground only highlighted the feeling of abjectness.  

Detail from NightHawks by Edward Hopper  google

NightHawks by Edward Hopper                          google image

Snow on New Hampshire Street in Sepia

These photos could be from another time except for the modern cars.  One could imagine carriages and horses trotting down the avenues, top hats being tipped and long wool scarves wrapped tightly keeping out the seeping cold air.  I love the way these photos came out.  I awoke at four in the morning and went to the window to peak out and there was an Earth covered in a white blanket of snow.  I did not alter the color, the sepia tone is just what happened with night lighting.  I love the glow of the lights, the old time quality,like a moment stolen in time travel.  Washington reveals itself in layers of history and gives us glimpses into its rich and historic past.  If you look hard, you see the ghost of the past peaking through to the present.

Rabbit's Moon studio: A WINTER'S TRILOGY

Rabbit's Moon studio: A WINTER'S TRILOGY: The landscape of cold  is foreign to me, I know of palms waving in the Gulf breeze not ebony skeletons reaching out across a ginger ...

A WINTER'S TRILOGY

The landscape of cold 

is foreign to me, I know of palms waving in the Gulf breeze not ebony skeletons reaching out across a ginger peach sky.  The beauty is stark and the contrast is compelling, but seems lonely and harsh. I took these pictures from a friends windows from inside where there was warmth.  

National Portrait Gallery/Washington D.C.

The National Portrait Gallery

Time Lapse in Sepia on a D.C Winters' Night

Photography is my tool in hundreds of way.  

I have never claimed to be a photographer, but just an observer.  I record as a journal, a diary, a memory, a feeling, a tender fleeting moment, a glimpse in time in the present once recorded is immediately in the past a captured image, a inquiry in to time and its meaning, an paint brush, an etching tool, ....hundreds of things I choose to do with a little point and shoot camera. I use a Lumix with 16 times focus.  It fits in a pocket easily, and captures spontaneous moments. I am happy with the color as well.  I would like an even more powerful zoom however.

 I am not picky about skill, and perhaps I should be...but art is intuitive to me and my experience in life is much that way.  The moment and how I react to it are usually paramount to me...for life is a journey, an experience, and an experiment for me.  Life for you may be very different, but I offer you a view of my journey as an artist, teacher and fellow human being.

New Hampshire Street   Washington D.C.

View from friends house with hands

Pearl Necklace of water droplets on barren branches

I love the look of the lighting here and the linear contrast of the branches

There is so little light here, and I could have lightened it up, but this if how we see scenes often...just a bit of reflected light on a wet pavement

Even though the cars are here, with the lighting and look I could be in a much earlier time period in Washington D.C, with carriages rattling by.

The soft glow of street lights remind me of London as well.