African Violets

African Violets
Copyright 2015 Hirschten
Oil on Canvas

I did this African Violet sitting in the window of my studio.  Their rich velvety texture it difficult to capture!  I love their quiet beauty.

And now your inspirational quote of the day:

"If you don't go after what you want, you will never have it.  

If you don't ask the answer is always no.  

If you don't step forward you are always in the same place."

-Nora Roberts

Book Launch Party Tonight!

Buy Now on Amazon

Come one, come all!  You are invited to...
"The Alchemy of Art" Book Launch Party

September 10th 7-9pm

Indianapolis Art Center

I wrote this book while teaching art classes for the Indianapolis Art Center.  While the students created their daily projects I would read art stories to them.  I am happy to announce that this collection is now available to be shared.  If you enjoy it please write an Amazon review and share with fellow art lovers.

Hope to see you there!

(This feels like cheating to make this an entry in the 30 day challenge but honestly this event is eating my time today!) 

The original painting on the cover of the book is of my daughter.  It is named "Birdhouse in your Soul" after the "They Might Be Giants" song.

Birdhouse in Your Soul
Copyright 2015 Hirschten

"It is the artist's business to make sunshine when the sun fails."

-Romain Rolland

Echo in the Grand Canyon

Echo in the Grand Canyon
Copyright 2015 Hirschten
Oil on Canvas 16" x 20"
NFS

"Writing a book of poetry is like dropping a rose petal down

the Grand Canyon and waiting for the echo."

-Don Marquis

A Rose is a Rose

A Rose is a Rose is a Rose
Copyright 2015 Hirschten
Oil on Canvas 5" x 7"

A rose is a rose is a rose.

-Gertrude Stein

In other words things are what they are.  

Unless... it is not a pipe:

Magritte's famous pipe paintings from 1928

But it IS a painting of a pipe.

So my rose isn't really a rose.  

BUT I can safely say that I understand my rose better after having communed with it to create the painting.

African Violets in the Window

African Violets In the Window
Copyright 2015 Hirschten
Oil on Canvas 5" x 7"

Summer's lease hath all too short a date.

-William Shakespeare, Sonnets

A Rose in the Light

A Rose in the Light
Copyright 2015 Hirschten
Acrylic on Canvas 11" x 14"
Buy Now on Etsy

Education is the movement from darkness to light.

-Allan Bloom

The Heart of Flowers

The Heart of Flowers
Copyright 2015 Hirschten
Oil on Canvas 16" x 20"
Prints Available on Fine Art America
Buy the Original Now on Etsy

The act of painting is about one heart telling another heart where he found salvation.

-Francisco Goya 

This painting is so very idealistic it hurts!  

It is belongs in the room of a young girl.  My grandmother and mother made me a quilt of these same colors when I was a child.  Feminine and ornate this painting reminds me of the Palace of Versailles and Baroque style.  The flowers that were in front of me last night as I painted it...  they are the objects that are so beautiful they are my salvation.  They are my comfort. 

A contemporary artist can use the findings of all epochs and all styles, from the most primitive literary expressions up to the most refined products of the baroque.

-Juan Goytisolo

Green Silence

Green Silence
Copyright 2015 Hirschten
Oil on Canvas 5" x 7"

Green was the silence, wet was the light.

-Pablo Neruda, 100 Love Sonnets

The End of Summer

The End of Summer
Copyright 2015 Hirschten
8" x 10" Oil on Canvas

Bees do have a smell, you know, 

and if they don't they should, 

for their feet are dusted with spices from a million flowers.

-Ray Bradbury, Dandelion Wine 

And how good is their sight I ask you?

Apples and Coneflowers

Apples and Coneflowers
Copyright 2015 Hirschten
Acrylic on Canvas 16" x 20"

Summer afternoon; 
to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.

-Henry James

30 Day Challenge?

A Single Rose
Copyright 2015 Hirschten
8" x 10" Oil on Canvas

So I have signed up for a 30 Day painting challenge for the month of September... honestly I don't know that I will make it through all of them this time around.  There are some unknown things that are up in the air...

In the meantime I'll give it a shot.  

A single rose can be my garden... a single friend my world.

-Leo Buscaglia

A Dream of Roses

A Dream of Roses
Copyright 2015 Hirschten
Oil on Canvas 24" x 36"
Available at the Rosewater Gallery

“Some people grumble that roses have thorns;

I am grateful that thorns have roses.”

-Alphonse Karr

"The Alchemy of Art: Stories for the Classroom" New Book Released!

Buy Now on Amazon

It's official friends!  

The new book "The Alchemy of Art: Stories for the Classroom" is available for purchase.

I started this book when I was teaching art classes for the Indianapolis Art Center Outreach "ArtReach" Program.  I was looking for material to read-aloud to the children while they were creating their art projects.   Finding folktales and biographies about artists from around the world, I  formed this book of short stories for art teachers to share in the classroom.  

I am so pleased that it is finished and ready to share with you!  If you enjoy it please write an Amazon review and share with fellow art lovers.

Get 3 FREE chapters from the book at:
 http://www.azhirfineart.com/new-products/

"It is the artist's business to make sunshine when the sun fails."

-Romain Rolland

Hot and Spicy Flowers

Hot and Spicy Flowers
Copyright 2015 Hirschten
Oil on Canvas 16" x 20"

"Variety's the very spice of life,

That gives it all its flavor."

-William Cowper

I Believe in Pink

I Believe in Pink
Copyright 2015 Hirschten
Acrylic on Canvas 16" x 20"

"I believe in pink. I believe that laughing is the best calorie burner. I believe in kissing, kissing a lot. I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong. I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day and I believe in miracles."
-Audrey Hepburn

Happy Birthday to me!
 

Indiana Summer

Indiana Summer
Copyright 2015 Hirschten
Oil on Canvas 11" x 14"

"My father... removed from Kentucky to... Indiana, in my eighth year... It was a wild region, with many bears and other wild animals still in the woods. There I grew up... Of course when I came of age, I did not know much. Still somehow, I could read, write, and cipher... but that was all."

-Abraham Lincoln 

Now we only have one bear in Indiana.  He has been spotted up near Lake Michigan.  I have gotten lost a couple of times in Indiana.... on roads just like this one.  Indiana has a quiet beauty.

The Fragrance of Apples

The Fragrance of Apples
Copyright 2015 Hirschten
Acrylic on Canvas 11" x 14"

"And when you crush an apple with your teeth, say to it in your heart:

Your seeds shall live in my body,

And the buds of your tomorrow shall blossom in my heart,

And your fragrance shall be my breath,

And together we shall rejoice through all the seasons.”

― Kahlil Gibran

Dunes Creek

Dunes Creek at the Indiana Dunes State Park
Copyright 2015 Hirschten
Oil on Canvas 11" x 14"

A few minutes before I did this painting a muskrat swam up the center of the creek, nibbled on some grass then kept on swimming.  It was a delightfully rich place!  I am so glad this marshland is being preserved.

"We are still each others only hope.  If love is the way we have of communicating personally in the deepest way, then what art can do is to extend this communication, magnify it, and carry it to vastly greater numbers of people. Therefore art is valid for the warmth and love it carries within it, even if it be the lightest entertainment, or the bitterest satire, or the most shattering tragedy."

-James Baldwin

Foxglove Flowers

Foxglove Flowers
Copyright 2015 Hirschten
Oil on Canvas 16" x 20"

Trehill Well

Above the ivies' branchlets gray
In glistening clusters shone;
While round the base the grass-blades bright
And spiry foxglove sprung.

Oh tell me not of bitter thoughts,
Of melancholy dreams,
By that fair fount whose sunny wall
Basks in the western beams.

-Charles Kingsley

Evening in Berlin

Evening in Berlin
Copyright 2015 Hirschten
Oil on Canvas 11" x 14"

The evening sings in a voice of amber, the dawn is surely coming.

-Al Stewart

Peonies in the Cut Glass Vase

Peonies in the Cut Glass Vase
Copyright 2015 Hirschten
Oil on Canvas 16" x 20"
Prints available on Fine Art America

Excerpt from the poem "Peonies"

Do you also hurry, half-dressed and barefoot, into the garden,
and softly,
and exclaiming of their dearness,
fill your arms with the white and pink flowers,

with their honeyed heaviness, their lush trembling,
their eagerness
to be wild and perfect for a moment, before they are
nothing, forever?

-Mary Oliver

Father and Son Fishing at Morse Reservoir

Father and Son Fishing at Morse Park Reservoir
Copyright 2015 Hirschten
Oil on Canvas 16" x 20"
Prints available on Fine Art America

"If people concentrated on the really important things in life

there would be a shortage of fishing poles."

-Doug Larson

The Mulberry Tree at Stony Creek Farm

SOLD, The Mulberry Tree at Stonycreek Farm
Copyright 2015 Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
16" x 20"
Prints available on Fine Art America

This past weekend I participated in the Hamilton County Paint Out.  For two days we painted throughout the county.  I visited Stonycreek Farm and the Morse Reservoir.  I was very thankful that this painting was purchased during our competition.

Now I fall in love with a lot of trees.  I will see one and say to myself "wow, that is the most beautiful tree ever!"  Then I will round the bend and say the same thing about the next tree.  This is one that is high up there on the list.  

The owner of Stonycreek Farm said that it is a fifty year old Mulberry tree AND an outhouse used to sit below it.  Well fertilized richness!

"The grass is always greener over the septic tank."

-Erma Bombeck

Hail Poetry!

Hail Poetry, Section 1, Copyright 2015 Hirschten

Hail Poetry, Section 2, Copyright 2015 Hirschten

Hail Poetry, Section 3, Copyright 2015 Hirschten

Hail Poetry, Section 4, Copyright 2015 Hirschten

Each panel is Acrylic on Canvas, 12" x 36"

"Hail, poetry, thou heaven-born maid!  

Thou gildest in the pirates trade.

Hail, flowing fount of sentiment.

All hail, all hail, divine emollient."

-Gilbert and Sullivan

This set of paintings highlights a section of music from Gilbert and Sullivan's musical, The Pirates of Penzance.  For me this is a stunningly divine piece of music laced with humorous truth about how grace holds a place even in the hearts of pirates. An emollient is a lubricant used to keep a machine running smoothly.  So poetry is what keeps our lives well-oiled and flowing.

Here is a YouTube video of the music:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZqgwJacJMY

The idea of translating music into visual form is not a new one.  Many artists such as Kandinsky and Marc Chagall have done this.  I am developing a set of exercises for the art classroom based on this idea. 

Yet can we truly translate one art form into another?  One function of every art form whether it is music, painting, sculpture, writing, dance or whatever is to communicate the the viewer.  Often we are communicating emotions through symbols, color or sound in a way that is not possible with words.  Each art language has special power.  We can take on the challenge of translating these forms, but some of the nuance will be lost in translation.

This painting has many symbols including a section from the pirate Blackbeard's flag:

A Little Birdhouse in Your Soul

Birdhouse in Your Soul
Copyright 2015 Hirschten
Acrylic on Canvas
22" x 28"
Prints Available on Fine Art America

This painting is inspired by the They Might Be Giants song "Birdhouse in your Soul."  The song is about a blue bird nightlight that brings comfort to the listener.  In the painting the bursts at the bottom represent the opening beats.  The eggs represent youth.  The young girl in the center of the painting is my daughter who is currently age nine.  I hope that she can keep the nightlight in her soul burning bright!

Part of the composition was inspired by a piece by Eldzier Cortor that is currently on display at the Art Institute of Chicago.  Loved it!

Jewels/Theme IV by Eldzier Cortor

Another element that inspired this painting is a photo of my father when he was in the first grade:

John Wooten, 1952, Knoxville, TN

I feel this photo really captures his spark, a unique youthful quality in him.  I attempted to get the same quality of image from my daughter choosing a direct gaze and replacing the "I Like Ike" button with the birdhouse- ha ha!  My father was a musician who taught high school marching bands.  Many of my first memories are of watching him direct his students to the rhythm of the beat.  This beat, this light "that doesn't rest" is what we need to push away the monsters in the shadows.

Also my mother is a birder who has always had numerous bird feeders and houses in the sanctuary of her yard.  For me- this is a painting rich in personal family symbolism.

"I have a secret to tell
From my electrical well
It's a simple message and I'm leaving out the whistles and bells
So the room must listen to me
Filibuster vigilantly
My name is blue canary one note* spelled l-i-t-e
My story's infinite
Like the Longines Symphonette it doesn't rest"

-They Might Be Giants

Flowers in the Kitchen

Flowers in the Kitchen
Copyright 2014 Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
16" x 20"

"I need my friends.  I need my house.  I need my garden."

-Miranda Richardson

The Birds of Syria

The Birds of Syria
Copyright 2015 Hirschten
Oil on Canvas 18" x 36"
Prints available on Fine Art America

War is always disruptive to families.  This painting is about how many Syrians have had their home, their nest, disrupted by the Syrian Civil War.  Like a flock of birds that have been startled, the people of Syria have scattered in all directions.  If a nest was thrown up in the air, the twigs of it would also scatter.  Yet here a mother holds a new delicate nest.  It contains the egg of future generations. She is carrying it until she can find a safe place that will be her new home.

This painting is also inspired by my friend, Dima Kroma, who is from Syria.  She is creating paintings of her homeland.  One of her recent paintings is of the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus with birds flying up around it into the air.  It is a beautiful scene.

Here is a photo of her painting currently on display at the Indianapolis Art Center:

Umayyad Mosque by Dima Kroma

When my friend Walter saw my "Birds of Syria" painting it he was moved to write a poem about it:

Birds of Syria 

by  Walter Biskupski

Fly away now,

Your precious lives are on the wing.

Let the currents guide you

Through the troubled air,

And bring you to shelter

Until the storms subside.

Allow those who love you to provide,

To lessen your fear; to ease your pain,

And like the winged migration through the year,

you may yet return home again.


It is my hope that the "Birds of Syria" painting will bring comfort to all Syrians who are suffering and that it raises awareness of the human rights violations that have been committed.  I am so glad that Dima, her family and others have escaped to my country, the United States, yet I can only imagine the pain of not being able to return home.

May peace come again to Syria.  May love fill your hearts.

Here are some in progress photos of this painting:

Charlottenburg Palace

Charlottenburg Palace, Berlin, Germany
Copyright 2015 Hirschten
Acrylic on Panel
11" x 14"

"I'd rather live in a cave with a view of a palace than live in a palace with a view of a cave."

-Karl Pilkington

My Daughter

My Daughter
Copyright 2015 Hirschten
Acrylic on Panel
11" x 14"
 

"She is just like a butter-rose, that blooms in the month of June.

Or like some musical instrument that's just been lately tuned."

-From the folk song "A Roving on a Winter's Night"

A Sneak Peek Inside My Art Studio...

Inside Hirschten's Art Studio

With help from fabulous photographer Emily Schwank of Rainscliff Photography here is a sneak peek inside my art studio.

I consider the painting studio to be a sanctuary, a place to take refuge.  I recommend that if you want to grow as an artist you must make space in your home to create. Virginia Woolf urged artists to have a "Room of One's Own" for their creative work but even a table tucked in the corner of your living room will work.  You need space to make a mess then put it all back together again.

"Sanctuary, on a personal level, is where we perform the job of taking care of our soul."

-Christopher Forest McDowell

Hirschten's Art Studio

Oil Paints

  

Hirschten Painting

Hirschten at work in her painting studio