And this New Year, on this beautiful sunny warm day, I let myself go free, I did it. I did it before, but this time is for real, and the page I opened up this morning proves it…..

– Excerpt from Women Who Run With The Wolves (Clarissa Pinkola Estes)

Trying to take shoes off, too late

When the wildest nature has been nearly exterminated, in the most extreme cases, it is possible that a schizoid deterioration and or psychosis may overwhelm the woman. She may just suddenly stay in bed, refuse to rise, or wander around in her bathrobe, absently leave cigarettes burning three to an ashtray, or cry and not be able to stop, wander in the streets with her hair disheveled, abruptly leave her family to wander. She may feel suicidal, she may kill herself either accidentally or with purpose. But far more commonly, the woman just goes dead. She does not feel good or bad, she just does not feel.

 So what happens to women when their vibrant psychic colors are mushed all together? What happens when you mix Scarlett, sapphire, and topaz all together? Artists know. When you stir vibrant colors together, you get a color called mud. Not mud that is fertile, but mud that is sterile, colorless, strangely dead, that does not emit light.

When painters make mud on the canvas, they must begin all over again.

 This is the heard part, this is where the shoes have to be cut off. It hurts to cut away from addiction to destruction, Nobody knows why.

 You would think people would be relieved. You would think they would feel saved in the nick of time. You would think they would rejoice. But , no, they go into a funk, they hear teeth gnashing, and discover they are the once making that noise. They feel they are bleeding somehow, even though there is no blood. Yet it is this pain, this severing, this “not having a foot to stand on,” so to speak, this no home to go back to the handmade life, the one careful and mindfully crafted by us every day.

Yes there is pain in being severed from the red shoes. But it is our only hope. It is a severing that is filled with absolute blessing. The feet will grow back, we will find our way, we will recover, we will run and jump and skip again some day. By then our handmade life will be ready. We will skip into it and marvel that we could be so lucky to have another chance.

Last week we celebrated with yet another Friday around the Holidays with an Invitation Night in Newburyport. For three Fridays before Christmas the stores open their doors inviting their costumers to rejoice in gift giving – and buying with food and drinks. The streets are flooded with visitors and there is literally no place left to park. I was invited to paint in one of the venues and I gladly accepted. I am always happy to show my art and meet people in the process. It was nice to see so many people to come in and to be truly impressed by the process of painting. I also attracted lot of artists of course and was happy to exchange ideas of being a working artist. It was a really fun night, and though it always takes so long to prepare, the work is always worth it.

About two weeks ago I have found a beautiful print mounted on a board finished with an exquisite frame. I bought it for $10 and I thought what a steal. The artist of that painting is Kathryn White and I admire all her art.

It was hung on a wall in my studio and every day I was looking at it admiring the beautifully detailed rendering of flowers in a still life. I love painting flowers, but what striked me as the most beautiful was the birdcage painted with every painstaking detail. And of course, being a portrait artist,  I was looking at my print on the wall, and I suddenly realized, that it is missing a face. And so instantly, without even thinking too much about it, I placed it on my easel and with my brushes and paints, off I went, immersing myself into some imaginary world, where birds, flowers, faces and cages coexist together. I have taken my painting to work on our Invitation Friday night and then couple of days she is finally finished. I am very happy with her, and now she is waiting to find a new home…….

Artist – Kathryn White

Art by Renata Loree

With Love and Light

Renata

I always ponder my attraction to painting faces. Even if I start an abstract piece, I always see a face in it eventually. So what is the point in fighting it. I see the face as the expression of human emotion, and emotion is what I really want to paint. I found this writing about the human face, which answered my question – The human face is an artistic achievement. On such a small surface an incredible variety and intensity of presence can be expressed.  This breath of presence overflows the limitation of the physical form. No two faces are exactly the same. There is always a special variation of presence in each one. Each face is a particular intensity of human presence.

The human face is the subtle, yet visual autobiography of each person. Regardless of how hidden the inner story of our life is, you can never successfully hide from the world while you have a face. If we knew how to read the faces of others, we would be able to decipher the mysteries of their life stories. The face always reveals the soul. It is where the divinity of the inner life finds an echo and image. When you behold someone’s face, you are gazing deeply into the persons life.

The human face carries mystery and is the exposure point of the mystery of the individual life. It is where the private, inner world of a person protrudes into the the anonymous world. It is the meeting place of two unknowns, the infinity of the outer world and the unchartered, inner world to which each individual alone has access. This is the night  world that lies behind the brightness of the visage. The smile on the face is a surprise or illumination. When the smile crosses the face , it is as if the inner night of the hidden world brightens suddenly. Heidegger  said very beautiful that we are the custodians of deep and ancient thresholds. (excerpts from Anam Cara, by John O’Donohue)

I have painted this girl with a Pink Bird on Her Shoulder as a part of an online course that is running right now – PYHS 2018. You can still sign up , and join other artist in this amazing year long workshop with 48 downloadable lessons – find out more in   here.

Soulful Whimsy is a workshop on how to create a one page journal from a recycled shopping bag. It literarily takes only couple of hours to create a journal, if you have all the supplies on hand.

And if you have missed it, now is your chance to jump in and try. How to create a complete journal in just couple of hours.

I am offering it again for Valentine’s Day at a discounted price for $45 

This is what you will learn
How to create our one page journal and adding your first page to it.
I will take you through a process how you can add more art to your pages add
We will just focus on a stand alone page from start to finish in any kind of journal.
We will experiment with different journals, divergent sizes
We will create a cover

Students Work

We are starting the New Year with our first auction  – The Winds of Change. And I think its an appropriate title, it makes me think about, how do I want to manifest all the things that I desire in my life. What do I need to do to make it happen? I have been struggling with taking new directions, pushing past boundaries and self limiting beliefs. There is always something to learn and new concepts to uncover. One of my self limiting beliefs is that there is never enough time, and so maybe this year I need to relax a little bit, not to give up, but to see more opportunities and keep an eye on the things that sap my energy and time.

I like this new quote – I try the best, and God takes care of the rest 🙂

Here are my new paintings for our Winds of Change Auction

Encircled

Find Your True North

The Goddesses Dance

Touch of magic

And here is a preview of some of the paintings from other home artists – Robynne Engel-Pirkle, Lucy Chen, Lara Provost, Annie Hamman, Lora Murphy, Olga Furman, Bianca Garcia and Katrina Koltes.

I you would like to join us, visit us here,

and I hope you have a wonderful start for the New Year!

We restarting in just few days! Make sure you don’t miss this one. Last year was really amazing! And scroll down for a gift from me, you can download right now :).

For only $125 for the whole year you will get 48 brand new lessons (it is less, then $2 per lesson! WOW!!! ), delivered to your mailbox weekly, from 24 amazing artist-instructors from all over the world!

If you are a beginner you will be able to follow the step by step instructions in each lesson. No previous experience in painting and drawing prior to this course is required.

If you are a seasoned artist, you will get inspired by the lessons, new mediums and techniques. There is always more to learn and explore in art!

We will mostly be creating Soulful Art with a visual story, which includes portraits and figures on beautiful backgrounds, but that’s not all! To find out more click HERE

My gift to you as the end of the year up roaches is this downloadable image, in full resolution. Just right click on image and download.

Happy New Year!

Renata