February Florals Day 12: Flowers of the Spring

Flowers of the Spring
Copyright 2014 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvax
8" x 10"
Original Available on Etsy

Now, my fair'st friend,
I would I had some flowers o' the spring that might
Become your time of day; and yours, and yours...

-Shakespeare, A Winter's Tale

(Seriously my friends...
we here in Indiana haven't seen the ground in over a month.
I am officially ready for spring!)

February Florals Day 11: The Perfume of a Rose

The Perfume of a Rose
Copyright 2014 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
8" x 10"

Beauty is an ecstasy; it is as simple as hunger. 

There is really nothing to be said about it. 

It is like the perfume of a rose: you can smell it and that is all.

-W. Somerset Maugham 

February Florals Day 10: Life is the Flower

Life is the Flower
Copyright 2014 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Panel
8" x 10"

Life is the flower for which love is the honey.

-Victor Hugo

February Florals Day 9: Bouquet of Flowers

Bouquet of Flowers
Copyright 2014 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
8" x 10"

Nobody sees a flower really; it is so small.

We haven't time, and to see takes time 

- like to have a friend takes time.

-Georgia O'Keeffe

February Florals Day 8: Lily

Lily
Copyright 2014 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Panel
8" x 10"

Time is jealous of you, and wars against your lilies and your roses.

-Oscar Wilde

February Florals Day 7: The Earth is Never Dead

The Earth is Never Dead
Copyright 2014 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
8"x 10"

The poetry of the earth is never dead.

-John Keats

 People have been asking to see my process... here are a few snapshots.

Step 1 Laying out the format in Burnt Sienna

Step 2 Laying in the dark tones

February Florals Day 6: Yellow Roses in the Window

Yellow Roses in the Window
Copyright 2014 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
11" x 14"
SOLD

Art is the child of nature in whom we trace the features of the mothers face.

-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

February Florals Day 5: Roses on My Table

Roses on My Table
Copyright 2014 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
11" x 14"

I'd rather have roses on my table than diamonds on my neck.

-Emma Goldman

February Florals Day 4: Crown Hill Tree

Crown Hill Tree
Copyright 2014 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
11" x 14"

This is a lovely tree I found in Crown Hill Cemetery, Indianapolis.

Nothing can be created out of nothing.

-Lucretius

February Florals Day 3: Open to the Sun

Open to the Sun
Copyright 2014 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
8" x 10"
Buy Original Painting on Etsy

Flowers are restful to look at.  They have neither emotions nor conflicts.

-Sigmund Freud

February Florals Day 2: Yellow Roses

Yellow Roses
Copyright 2014 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
8" x 10"
Buy Original Painting on Etsy

 When I was a teenager I went on a trip to France.  I was very, very excited about the trip.  I had studied French language and art for years beforehand to prepare.  When I arrived I had a wonderful time, but I felt a bit let down.

It wasn't perfect.

It wasn't Shangri-la, a mythical place of perfection.

We are constantly clibing up the mountain to the summit of happiness.  Our fingers clutching at the rocks and dirt, Shangri-la just out of reach.

I walked along the streets of Paris with my group just below Montmartre.  I looked up and hanging from a window was a large banner in English.

It read...

Bloom where you are planted.

February Florals Day 1!

This painting was purchased by my mother somewhere overseas in the 1960s.  As a kid I remember thinking "how can that man see?"  I can also see him as a floral monster... like a centaur, half-man half-beast.  

Or it is me... carrying a big bunch of flowers for you to enjoy?  Check back each day this month for new flower paintings.  I want to get good at flowers.  I want to conquer this beast.

The earth laughs in flowers.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Snowcation and Moving On

Tree in the Falling Snow
Copyright 2014 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
16" x 20"
Buy Now on Etsy

 

Today's post is of two paintings that I did of trees outside my house during our crazy "snowcation."  It snowed 12 inches in 24 hours that day.  

In my personal life there is big news.  I just quit my job as a librarian.  I've worked in libraries for 18 years... so this it is strange to move onto a new stage of life.  I've been selling enough paintings to create art full-time so... here we are living the dream and moving on.  Bittersweet.

Announcement:  next month I will be painting only flowers!  

This will be called "February Florals" here on the blog.  If any of you fans have photos to contribute please send them my way.   I'll be buying hot house pinkies but I'd love some tropical inspiration.  Let's get through this last stage of winter!

Tree Heavy with Snow
Copyright 2014 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
16" x 20"
Buy Now on Etsy

Snowflakes (45)

I counted till they danced so 

Their slippers leaped the town-

And then I took a pencil

To note the rebels down-

And then they grew so jolly 

I did resign the prig-

And ten of my once stately toes

Are marshalled for a jig!

-Emily Dickinson

You Are My Sunshine

You Are My Sunshine
Copyright 2013 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
Prints available on Fine Art America

You are my sunshine, my only sunshine
You make me happy when skies are grey.

You'll never know dear how much I love you.

Please don't take my sunshine away.

So I made this painting for my daughter.  She said "Where are the people?  Who is singing?" And I said, "The people are looking at the painting."

And I made another long and lean version:

You Are My Sunshine 2
Copyright 2013 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
Prints available on Fine Art America

Register Now for "Art Marketing 101"

Give and Take
Oil on Canvas
18" x 24"
Prints available on Fine Art America

Art Marketing 101

Indianapolis Art Center

Jan 23-Feb 13, 2014 

Thursday Evenings 6:30-9:30pm

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.

Join us!

Register here:

 http://reg131.imperisoft.com/IndianapolisArtCenter/ProgramDetail/3136313535/Registration.aspx

SOLD The Climbing Tree

The Climbing Tree
Copyright 2013 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
16" x 20"
SOLD
Prints available on Fine Art America

This painting depicts my daughter's favorite climbing tree in Broad Ripple Park, Indianapolis.  It is her favorite because she can climb it while it is my favorite because it is so oddly shaped.  It curves around like the interior of a shell hugging the ground.  The woman who bought it said that her son climbed the same tree and he is now 21.  Happiness

Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.

-Martin Luther

The Shell Spiral

Shell Spiral
Copyright 2013 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas

The present was an egg laid by the past that had the future inside its shell.

-Zora Neale Hurston

Happy New Year!

Tree Rings

Tree Rings
Copyright 2013 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas

If what I say resonates with you,

it is merely because we are both branches on the same tree.

- W. B. Yeats

I made this painting as a gift for a special family member who loves trees.

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Mother Mary Painting

Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
11" x 14"
Prints available on Fine Art America
Original available on Etsy

I remember my mother's prayers and they have always followed me.

They have clung to me all my life.

-Abraham Lincoln

The Star and the Flower

The Star and the Flower
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
16" x 20"
Original Available at the Art IN Hand Gallery

You must become brother and sister

to each and every thing

so that they flow through you 

dissolving every difference

between what belongs to you and others.

No star, no leaf shall fall-

you fall with them-

to rise again 

in every new beginning.
-Herman Hesse

Join me for the IAC Winter Art Sale!
 December 13th 6-9pm and 14th 10am-4pm

Located at the Indianapolis Art Center 

The Nativity

The Nativity
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
16" x 20"
Prints available on Fine Art America 
Original Available at the Art IN Hand Gallery

Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that.

Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.

-Martin Luther King Jr

SOLD: The Harpist

The Harpist
Oil on Canvas
16" x 20"
SOLD
Prints available on Fine Art America

Back in my abstract college painting days, I depicted the sound of music with color and shape often. 

I have always envisioned harp notes as golden. 

The piano is blue. 

Drums are green (well, sometimes black.) 

And my instrument, the fiddle, is red.

Time has laid his hand
Upon my heart gently, not smiting it,
But as a harper lays his open palm
Upon his harp, to deaden its vibrations.

-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

SOLD "The Cliffs at La Jolla"

Cliffs at La Jolla California
Oil on Canvas
9" x 12"
SOLD
Reprints available on Fine Art America

When this painting sold from the Art In Hand Gallery I got to talk to the buyers.  Apparently they first told each other "I love you" on the La Jolla cliffs many years ago.  How sweet is that!

Life has loveliness to sell,

all beautiful and splendid things,

blue waves whitened on a cliff,

soaring fire that sways and sings,

and children's faces looking up,

holding wonder like a cup. 

-Sara Teasdale

SOLD: April on the Broad Ripple Canal

April on the Broad Ripple Canal
Copyright 2013 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
16" x 20"
SOLD
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

Yet another sold painting from the Art IN Hand Gallery!

 

SOLD "The Dream"

The Dream
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
8" x 10"
SOLD

There are some people who live in a dream world,

and there are some that face reality;

and then there are those that turn one into the other.

-Douglas H. Everett

Another painting sold from the Art IN Hand Gallery!

SOLD "The French Window"

French Window
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
8" x 8"
SOLD

An evil person is like a dirty window, they never let the light shine through.

-William Makepeace Thackeray

SOLD: "Illinois Street Bridge Painting"

Illinois Street Bridge
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
9" x 12"
SOLD

A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.

-Albert Einstein

Leaves Have Ripened

Leaves Have Ripened
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
18" x 36"

Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;

Tomorrow’s wind, if it be wild,

Should waste them all.

-Robert Frost

SOLD: "White River Painting"

White River from Broad Ripple Park
Copyright 2011 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
9" x 12"
SOLD from the Art IN Hand Gallery

Two years ago it was a blustery cold day. 

The clouds were moving fast and I had to hold my canvas down with my thumb to keep it from flying off of my easel. 

But... for a brief hour the sun showed his face and I was able to create this painting.

Join us for the New Year's Art Retreat!

 
New Year's Art Retreat

Join us!
Saturday January 4th 2014  9:00am - 5pm
 Location:  UU Church of Indianapolis, 615 W. 43rd St., Indianapolis, IN 46208

Treat yourself!  Join us for a relaxing day of creating art.
Together we will unwind, recharge, make new friends and ring in the new year.

All levels of art experience welcome.

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 Morning Sessions: 
Vision Board Collages with Addie Hirschten 

or
Goddess Dolls with Kat Toebes

Afternoon Sessions:
Knitting Circle with Cara Moczygemba

or
Calligraphy with Wendy Dougherty


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Registration Closed

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Partial proceeds of the event will go to benefit: