Indiana Sunrise

Indiana Sunrise
Copyright 2013 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
9" x 12"
Prints available on Fine Art America
Original Painting available at the Art IN Hand Gallery

Everything comes to us that belongs to us if we create the capacity to receive it.  

-Rabindranath Tagore

My Expressionism Class is Filling Up!

Ancient Clay
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
18" x 24"
Prints available on Fine Art America

My upcoming Expressionistic Painting class is filling up quickly!

Join us this summer for an exciting painting class at the Indianapolis Art Center.  In it we will explore the master painters of the Expressionistic movement. Inspired by their methods and philosophy we will create paintings to release emotion and express the beauty of the world around us and within us.

Register here:

http://reg131.imperisoft.com/IndianapolisArtCenter/ProgramDetail/39393530/Registration.aspx

One of the artists we will be studying!
"Head of a Woman" painting by Odilon Redon

Another work of inspiration by Hundertwasser

Art IN Hand Gallery

Illinois Street Bridge in April, Indianapolis 2013
Copyright 2013 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
16" x 20"
Prints available on Fine Art America

I am pleased to announce that I am now showing artwork with the Art IN Hand Gallery of Zionsville, Indiana!  I feel so blessed to have yet another opportunity to share my work with others and celebrate the beauty of the natural world through my landscape paintings.

Join me on the evening of Friday June 7th 7-9pm as I celebrate my first "First Friday" at the gallery.  Click here for the facebook event.

Words are a pretext.
It is the inner bond that draws one person to another, not words.

-Rumi

Guilford Avenue Bridge

Guilford Avenue Bridge, Broad Ripple Indianapolis
Copyright 2013 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
9" x 12"
Available at the Art IN Hand Gallery 
Prints available on Fine Art America

We were always intoxicated with color,

with words that speak of color, and with the sun that makes colors live.

-Andre Derain 

Friday Feature: The Bloomsbury Group

Members of the Bloomsbury Group
Including Lytton Strachey, Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell

Virginia Woolf, Lytton Stracheny, Duncan Grant, Dora Charrington, Roger Fry and Vanessa Bell were a few of the artists in what is now called the Bloomsbury Group.  It was a loosely defined group united by friendships, the occasional dinner party, artistic style, and liberated feminist ideals.

George Edward Moore's book Principia Ethica greatly influenced the philosophical musings of this group.  It focused on the idea that "good" is not a trait that can be rigidly defined but rather is formulated by the "intrinsic" gut feeling of an individual.  Moore wrote, "all moral laws are merely statements that certain kinds of actions will have good effects" meaning that an action in itself is not good or bad therefore morality should not be based on rules of conduct.  For example many of the Bloomsbury group questioned the moral judgement held in much of British culture during that time  that homosexuality was a sin.  They renounced ethics that were based solely on past societal structure and not on the rights of the individual.  Taking it one step further many of the Bloomsbury group members also questioned the idea of traditional monogamous marriage.  Several of them practiced polyamory maintaining relationships with multiple consensual partners.  This notion of redefining morality and where the line can be drawn between good and bad ethics is as fascinating today as it was a hundred years ago during the heyday of the Bloomsbury Group. 

Living Room at the Charleson House

Anyway... back to art.  One of the many places on my bucket list to visit is the Charleson House in England.  It was the home of Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant two members of the Bloomsbury Group.  Littered with murals and art the Charleson House is a unique example of an English country home.

The prime objects in life are love,

the creation and enjoyment of aesthetic experience

and the pursuit of knowledge.

-G. E. Moore

Virginia Woolf Painting by Roger Fry

"Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf?  No, no, no not I."

-Edward Albee

Dora Carrington

I am a Rock

Lovers
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
18" x 24"
Prints available on Fine Art America

I don't want to be another wave in the ocean

I am a rock not just another great accent

I want to be the one you turn to when you need a shoulder

-Bon Jovi, Because We Can

All kinds of marvelous things go on,

I don't see how anyone who has looked, and seen,

can do ought but say,

'where I stand, wherever I stand, I am on holy ground.'

-John Wood

Nothing Gold Can Stay

My Grandfather's Roses in bloom once again

The other day I had one of those scary moments when I thought "Shit, I am going to loose it... this thing I love it is going to be gone, and there is nothing I can do about it."  It was an irrational fear- the kind that happens only when I am feeling insecure and want to nail down everything that I love tight to my chest where I know it is safe.  I am so lucky to be showered with so much love- this makes me bloody scared and thankful all at once.

But it will all be gone one day.  In a hundred years everyone I love will be gone.  This is what Robert Frost meant when he wrote "nothing gold can stay."  Then again I transplanted my grandfather's roses to my house after he died.  Now those blooms are a strange paradox... blooming for a short time yet faithfully returning each year.  

So something about all this IS constant... in a North Star sort of a way.

__________________________________

I know that what I am feeling has been felt before by countless folks behind me who were all fabulous in their own way but seriously...

***you are made of gold***

__________________________________

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf,
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day
Nothing gold can stay. 

-Robert Frost

Friday Feature: Romare Bearden

Chorus Provided by Romare Bearden

Romare Bearden was one of the most influential modern artists in recent American history.  He produced a prolific number of paintings many created with collage.  My favorites are his pieces created on the island of St. Martin.  They truly capture the hot vibrant zest of the Caribbean.

There are roads out of the secret place within us which we must all move as we go to touch others.

-Romare Bearden

Khayam and the Black Girl by Romare Bearden

The artist has to be something like a whale swimming with his mouth wide open,

absorbing everything until he has what he really needs.

-Romare Bearden

The Lamp by Romare Bearden

Sunset Over the White River

Sunset Over the White River
Copyright 2013 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
16" x 20"

Clouds come floating into my life,

no longer to carry rain or usher storm,but to add color to my sunset sky. 

-Rabindranath Tagore

Style

Style
Copyright 2013 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
16" x 20"

A style is the symbol of an overall feeling,

of an era's attitude to life,

and is only visible within the universe of all the arts.

-Peter Behrens, "Celebration of Life and Art"

Friday Feature: Samuel Palmer

Garden in Shoreham by Samuel Palmer

The saddest part of the story of the artist Samuel Palmer's life is that his son destroyed his personal writings and notebooks after his death.  I have to wonder if Palmer would be more well known today if this desecration had not occurred.  He was a mystical landscape painter who was greatly influenced by William Blake.  We can only speculate on those lost philosophical writings.

The visions of the soul, being perfect, are the only true standard by which nature must be tried.

-Samuel Palmer

Interesting... from this quote I deduce that Palmer viewed the soul of man and the natural world as separate, the natural world being of lower form.  Why then did he focus so much on landscape art?   At any rate I tend to view our natural reactions to be of a higher level and more in tune with the core of our souls, but that is perhaps the transcendentalist influence of my background.

Oak Trees in Lullingstone Park by Samuel Palmer

When less than four years old I was standing with my nurse, Mary Ward, watching the shadows on the wall from branches of an elm behind which the moon had risen. I have never forgot those shadows and am often trying to paint them. 

-Samuel Palmer

Moonlight by Samuel Palmer

The Breath of the Earth

The Breath of the Earth
Copyright 2013 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
18" x 36"

The wind is the breath of the earth.

It reaches into every corner,

unfolding,

without choosing between high or low,

exalted or humble,

it touches everywhere.

Let us gather here together

from every corner,

from high and low,

exalted and humble.

Let us gather here and everywhere.

Let us mix the dusts of every land.

Let us worship together.

April on the Broad Ripple Canal

April on the Broad Ripple Canal
Copyright 2013 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
16" x 20"
Prints available on Fine Art America

I have come to believe that there are infinite passageways out of the shadows,

infinite vehicles to transport us into the light.

-Martha Beck

 

Madonna

Madonna
Copyright 2013 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
18" x 24"
Prints available on Fine Art America

We cannot live only for ourselves.

A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men, and among those fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects.

-Herman Melville

Happy Mother's Day!

Illinois Street Bridge in April

Illinois Street Bridge in April, Indianapolis 2013
Copyright 2013 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
16" x 20"
Prints available on Fine Art America

Life stands before me like an eternal spring with new and brilliant clothes.

-Carl Friedrich Gauss

 

A Midsummer Night's Dream

A Midsummer Night's Dream
Copyright 2013 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
16" x 20"

You have but slumbered here
While these visions did appear.
And this weak and idle theme,
No more yielding but a dream.

Give me your hands, if we be friends,
And Robin shall restore amends.

-Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream

(This past weekend I got to see Shakespeare at the Indiana Repertory Theatre!!!  Sweet.)

Registration for my Summer Classes is Now Open!

Join me for these upcoming classes at the Indianapolis Art Center:

Promoting Your Business through Social Media
Indianapolis Art Center
Saturdays June 8-29, 2013  9am-12pm
Getting the word out about your art has never been easier than it is today. In this class we will learn about the many new options for marketing and promoting your work. We will cover website creation, blogs, facebook fan pages, photographing work, as well as "old-fashioned" methods. Get a fresh start by refining your goals and learning new methods of sharing your message with the world.
Register here:
http://reg131.imperisoft.com/IndianapolisArtCenter/ProgramDetail/39383632/Registration.aspx

Expressionistic Painting
Indianapolis Art Center
Thursdays July 11-August 1st, 2013  7-10pm
Join us in this class as we explore the master painters of the Expressionistic movement. Inspired by their methods and philosophy we will create paintings to release emotion and express the beauty of the world around us and within us.
Register here:
http://reg131.imperisoft.com/IndianapolisArtCenter/ProgramDetail/39393530/Registration.aspx

The Hourglass

The Hourglass
Copyright 2013 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
16" x 20"

The long unmeasured pulse of time moves everything.

There is nothing hidden that it cannot bring to light,

nothing once known that may not become unknown.

Nothing is impossible.

-Sophocles, Ajax

Full Many a Glorious Morning Have I Seen

Full Many a Glorious Morning Have I Seen
Copyright 2013 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
18" x 24"
Prints available on Fine Art America

SONNET 33 

Full many a glorious morning have I seen

Flatter the mountain-tops with sovereign eye,

Kissing with golden face the meadows green,

Gilding pale streams with heavenly alchemy;

Anon permit the basest clouds to ride

With ugly rack on his celestial face,

And from the forlorn world his visage hide,

Stealing unseen to west with this disgrace:

Even so my sun one early morn did shine

With all triumphant splendor on my brow;

But out, alack! he was but one hour mine,

The region cloud hath mask'd him from me now.

Yet him for this my love no whit disdaineth;

Suns of the world may stain when heaven's sun staineth.

-Shakespeare

Friday Feature: Maxfield Parrish

Reveries
Maxfield Parrish

With painstaking attention to detail Maxfield Parrish created paintings that both realistically portray the human form and landscape AND surreally create scenes of fantasy.  Yet these are not the uncomfortable surrealistic scenes of Salvador Dali or Magritte.  Parish's world is soft and reflects only the gentle side of our experiences.  Using art as a means of calling attention to the beautiful side of creation.

Princess Parizade Bringing Home the Singing Tree
Maxfield Parrish

The hard part is how to plan a picture so as to give to others what has happened to you.  To render in paint an experience, to suggest the sense of light and color, or air and space.

-Maxfield Parrish

Heart

Heart
Copyright 2013 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
16" x 20"

My crown is in my heart, not on my head;

not decked with diamonds and Indian stones, nor to be seen:

my crown is called content,

a crown it is that seldom kings enjoy.

-Shakespeare

Measure for Measure

Measure for Measure
Copyright 2013 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
18" x 24"

What's mine is yours and what is yours is mine.

Truth is truth to the end of reckoning.

-Shakespeare, Measure for Measure

Friday Feature: Edmund Dulac

The Little Mermaid by Edmund Dulac

I worship this amazing illustrator, Edmund Dulac.  Sweeping arches of wind and rain bring each piece to compositional perfection.  My favorite is his depictions of Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Mermaid."

Love and Beauty by Edmund Dulac

To be of use to the world is the only way to be happy.

-Hans Christian Andersen

Dulac

I only appear to be dead.

-Hans Christian Andersen

Sunrise

Sunrise
Copyright 2013 Addie Hirschten
Acrylic on Canvas

The grand show is eternal.

It is always sunrise somewhere;

the dew is never dried at once;

a shower is forever falling;

vapor is ever rising.

-John Muir

Saint Therese of Lisieux

Saint Therese of Lisieux
Copyright 2013 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
30" x 15"

This painting depicts Saint Therese as I imagine her... alone in her room as she sits writing "The Story of a Soul."  Despite her illness her youthful optimism perseveres.  It is dark and dismal yet light is streaming through the window like a beacon of hope.

Love proves itself by deeds, so how am I to show my love?

Great deeds are forbidden me.

The only way I can prove my love is by scattering flowers and these flowers are every little sacrifice, every glance and word, and the doing of the least actions for love.

-Saint Therese of Lisieux

Friday Feature: Arthur Rackham

Alice in Wonderland by Arthur Rackham

Dark and mysterious the artwork of Arthur Rackham had a profound influence on book illustration at the turn of the 20th century.  I especially love how he mixed realism with an ethereal mysticism transporting the viewer to the world of fantasy.  Wolves bare their teeth and bodies are floated off into the air... as if each character is not a solid structure but the spirit of an emotional idea.  Check out his dynamic renditions of "Alice in Wonderland" and "British Fairy Tales" if you favor creepy depictions of these classic tales.

Fairy from Peter Pan by Arthur Rackham

To move, to breathe, to fly, to float,

To gain all while you give,

To roam the roads of lands remote,

To travel is to live.

-Hans Christian Andersen

Wolf Hunt by Arthur Rackham

Hoosier Women Artists

6PM on the Broad Ripple Canal
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
16" x 20"
Prints available on Fine Art America

I am happy to announce that this landscape painting depicting the Broad Ripple Canal was selected to hang in the Lieutenant Governor's office in the Indiana State House for the next year!  Lt. Governor Ellsperman selected this piece as part of the Hoosier Women Artists Program.  

So it is official... I am a Hoosier!

(If my degree from IU didn't tip the scales surely this does.)

Hirschten and Lt. Governor Ellsperman at the Indiana State House

The Immaculate Heart of Mary

The Immaculate Heart of Mary
Copyright 2013 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
15" x 30"

His mother kept all these sayings in her heart.

-Luke 2:51

Come One, Come All!



Brigid
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
16" x 20"
Prints available on Fine Art America



This Saturday night April 6th, 2012 at the Harrison Art Center in Indianapolis we, the friends of Jude Odell, are hosting a benefit party in her honor!  There will be live music, drinks, food.  I have donated the painting above to be part of the art auction. 

Find out more about it on the facebook event page:
Benefit Party at the Harrison Art Center.

When you start a painting, it is something outside you.
At the conclusion, you seem to move inside the painting.
-Fernando Botero

Our Bodies are our Gardens

Our Bodies are our Gardens
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
16" x 20"

Our bodies are our gardens, to the which our wills are gardeners.

-Shakespeare, Othello