February Florals Day 21: Orange Laughter

Orange Laughter
Copyright 2014 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
9" x 12"
SOLD

Of everything I have seen,

it's you I want to go on seeing:

of everything I've touched,

it's your flesh I want to go on touching.

I love your orange laughter.

I am moved by the sight of you sleeping.

What am I to do, love, loved one?

I don't know how others love

or how people loved in the past.

I live, watching you, loving you.

Being in love is my nature. 

-Pablo Neruda

February Florals Day 20: The Bright Bouquet

The Bright Bouquet
Copyright 2014 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Museum Quality Panel
16" x 20"

The springtime's pallid landscape

Will glow like bright bouquet,

Though drifted deep in parian

The village lies to-day.

The lilacs, bending many a year,

With purple load will hang:

The bees will not forget the tune

Their old forefathers sang.

The rose will redden in the bog,

The aster on the hill

Her everlasting fashion set,

And covenant gentians frill,

Till summer folds her miracle

As women do their gown,

Or priests adjust the symbols

When sacrament is done.

-Emily Dickinson, LXXIII

Where I live in Indiana we have just beaten the record with over 51 inches of snow this year!  

We are so ready for spring it hurts.  

"Absence makes the heart grow fonder."  Yes

February Florals Day 19: A Handful of Flowers

A Handful of Flowers
Copyright 2014 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Museum Quality Panel
9" x 12"
SOLD

Oh! hearts that weep, and are prone to yield

To the touch of gloom in this world of ours,

Go search yourselves, and you'll always find

That there still remains a handful of flowers.

-Mary Dow Brine

February Florals Day 18: Within the Flower

Within the Flower
Copyright 2014 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
8" x 10"

I HIDE myself within my flower,

That wearing on your breast,

You, unsuspecting, wear me too-

And angles know the rest.

I hide myself within my flower,

That, fading from your vase,

You, unsuspecting, feel for me

Almost a loneliness.

-Emily Dickinson

February Florals Day 17: Flowers

Flowers
Copyright 2014 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
11" x 14"

I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers.

-Claude Monet

February Florals Day 16: Tulips

Tulips
Copyright 2013 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
9" x 12"

But I have always thought that these tulips must have had names. They were red, and orange and red, and red and orange and yellow, like the ember in a nursery fire of a winter's evening. I remember them.

-Neil Gaiman, Coraline

February Florals Day 15: Believe in Beauty

Believe in Beauty Collage on Paper

If you can love one person, you can love anyone.

If you can love yourself, you can love anyone.

If you can see the beauty in one spot on earth, you can see it anywhere.

The whole world is a single flower.

-Seung Sahn

February Florals Day 14: My Mother's Cross Stitch

My mother made this the year before I was born. 

Happy Valentine's Day!

February Florals Day 13: To Bloom

To Bloom
Copyright 2014 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
12" x 24"

And the day came when the risk to remain tight in the bud

was greater than the risk it took to bloom.

-Anais Nin

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