"Conversation in the Solarium" Oil Painting by Barbara Hall Blumer
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| "Conversation in the Solarium" by Barbara Hall Blumer 8 x 12" Oil Painting |
I spotted these two ladies in the solarium at the Barbara Hepworth museum in St. Ives, Cornwall, England during our trip a few years ago. From their backpacks and their journals, I have imagined them as artists, or writers, conversing about their art together. Art buddies. The experience stuck in my mind.
Then, last year, I went to Oregon and joined two artist friends, Anne and Heather, for a beautiful art-making weekend on the coast at Heather's family cabin. I had not been able to see them in years since we live on other sides of the country... and due to Covid.
We made art and talked and walked along the beach in the blustery January weather with Heather's dog, Maggie. We made a fire and burned items with bad mojo as an art cleanse. It was great experience on many levels.
While there, I started this painting, but I didn't keep working on it... until recently. Not sure why. Perhaps because it is a challenging subject with two figures and lots of things going on in the interior of the solarium? But now it is done, and I am happy about that.
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| One of my photos from our visit in 2022 |
Barbara Hepworth's house and garden is now a museum and well worth visiting if you are ever in St. Ives.
Dame Barbara Hepworth is one of Britain's most important artists, a sculptor, who created large-scale organic modern sculptures, set in the landscape or in the garden. She was a peer and rival of Henry Moore, another British organic modern sculptor whose work I have always liked. She was born in 1903 and died in 1975.
I highly recommend this short clip, a clever mash-up of her talking about her creative process over a BBC video of her making sculpture by James Payne (@greatartexplained) on Instagram. It is always insightful to hear the artist in their own voice talk about their work.
One of the reasons I find her so inspiring is that she said that she made time for her art, everyday, regardless of how busy and difficult her life was as a mother and wife. And she lived during very traditional times for a woman. And did not have much money. Divorced and married an artist, divorced again. She had a very challenging life of four children including triplets, but she still made her art a priority.
"What she is saying that it doesn't matter how small the creativity is, it doesn't have to be massive 11 feet high sculptures, it can be some pencil sketches at midnight, as long as it is done every day," as Jane of Snapdragon Life explains.
Wise words.
---Barbara
