30 Day Challenge Day 6: My Nieces Reading

My Nieces Reading
Copyright 2014 Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
16" x 20"

Well this scene certainly warmed this former children's librarian's heart!

I am so lucky to have these cuties living so close to me.

"A book is like a garden, carried in the pocket." 

- Chinese Proverb

30 Day Challenge Day 5: Pirates in the Harbor

Pirates in the Harbor
Copyright 2014 Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
18" x 24"

 Pirates like to gather in Beaufort, North Carolina!

"Whether we wound or are wounded, the blood that flows is red.”

- Eiichiro Oda

30 Day Challenge Day 4: Cosmos Flowers

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

"The beauty of a living thing is not the atoms that go into it,

but the way those atoms are put together."

-Carl Sagan, Cosmos

(Does anybody get my double entendre?  Ha ha)

30 Day Challenge Day 3: The Indiana Dunes

The Indiana Dunes
Copyright 2014 Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
11" x 14"

Can you feel the wind whipping over the sand?  The rickety old fence was trying to tame it but obviously not succeeding.  I was amazed at the height of the dunes!  They create a very dramatic landscape.

30 Day Challenge Day 2: Red Sails

Red Sails
Copyright 2014 Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
11" x 14"

I saw this fabulous red sailboat off of the shores of Shackleford Banks, North Carolina this summer.  It was amazing how well the color of the sails matched the driftwood and scrubby brush on the dunes of the island.  I wish I could be there now to feel the wind filling up my metaphorical sails!

30 Day Challenge Day 1: Horses on Carrot Island

Horses on Carrot Island
copyright 2014 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
11" x 14"

Here we are at day one of the 30 Day Painting Challenge hosted by artist Leslie Saeta!  Me and many other artists will be posting daily paintings during the month of September on Leslie's blog.  It is an excellent way to push yourself to progress.  This time I will be focusing on beach scenes from my summer including Beaufort, NC and the Indiana Dunes.

This painting is the first horse painting I've ever done!  (Unless you count fourth grade drawings.)  The horses on Carrot Island are all wild.  This painting had to be done from a photo since they move so quickly.  The sun was setting from the opposite direction creating amazing purple clouds to the east. 

Nectarines and Porcelain Vase

Nectarines and Porcelain Vase
Copyright 2014 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
16" x 20"

"Love is your life, your friend, your relative, your food and your everything.  Heart that is filled with love can never be polluted.  Love is like a nectarine.  Once you fill it in your heart, the poison of evil will have no place in it."

-Sri Sathya Sai Baba

Sunset Over Beaufort

Sunset Over Beaufort
Copyright 2014 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
11" x 14"
SOLD

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

-Romain Rolland

We create what we want to see more of, what we desperately crave.  This is why northerners fill their homes with bright colors, why dissonant industrial sounds of the city make us crave the harmony of music.  This is why the depressed become comedians. Artists create to push their own lives back into balance. 

A few years ago I was horribly depressed.  Everything seemed ugly.  It was through art that I was able to see the beauty of the world again.  With every painting I create I am reminding myself of that beauty.  And it is my sincere, cheesy hope that you, dear reader, can see it too.

Hydrangeas

Hydrangeas
Copyright 2014 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
16" x 20"

"It is not peace that I seek, but life."

-Romain Rolland

Grandpa's Roses

Grandpa's Roses
Copyright 2014 Hirschten
Acrylic on Canvas
11" x 14"

Some people are always grumbling because roses have thorns;

I am thankful that thorns have roses.

-Alphonse Karr


Join me tonight for the Opening Reception
at
Gallery Two
5914 North College Ave. Indianapolis  
 Wednesday August 6th 5-9pm

Sunflowers

Sunflowers
Copyright 2014 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
16" x 20"
SOLD

"The sunflower is mine, in a way."

-Vincent Van Gogh

Come see this painting live and in person for our opening:
Wednesday August 6th 5-9pm
at
Gallery Two
5914 North College Ave. Indianapolis 

Rays of Light

Rays of Light
Copyright 2013 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
Prints available on Fine Art America

 

Art is a process... and it's a process that never ends.

Art is a personal gift that changes the recipient. The medium doesn't matter. The intent does.

Art is a personal act of courage, something one human does that creates change in another.

It's not the medium or the oil or the price or whether it hangs on a wall or you eat it. What matters, what makes it art, is that the person who made it overcame the resistance, ignored the voice of doubt and made something worth making. Something risky. Something human.

-Seth Godin

I am in love with Seth Godin's new book "The Icarus Deception."  In it Godin examines the purpose and process of creating art.  What is the purpose behind creating something like this sunset painting?  For me it is to call attention to the divine beauty of nature, of who we are, of what we see.  And the process of mixing the paint, laying it down and making this strange reflection of what is in front of me... this is part of the mess of creation.  This is part of being human.

To love beauty is to see light.

-Victor Hugo

Still Life Paintings

Pitcher and Pears
Copyright 2014 Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
11" x 14"

 The more things change the more they are the same.

-Alphonse Karr

Here are a few still life paintings that I worked on recently as a personal challenge and exercise. Below is the first and last one I created...

Orange and Gold
Copyright 2014 Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
11" x 14"

Apple Reflections
Copyright 2014 Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
11" x 14"

Saturday Morning

Saturday Morning
Copyright 2014 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
11" x 14"

While I was painting this I had one of my favorite songs in my head, "Morning Blues." 

Here are the lyrics...

Been in business and I've been in love

I used to fly high like a turtle dove

Had the blues many a time

Just a girl on a poor boy's mind

I got the morning blues

Oh so bad

Honey come and kiss me

They're the worst I've ever had

Nickel's worth of grease, Dime's worth of lard

I would buy more but the times are too hard

Ain't no need for me to work so hard

'Cause I can live off the chickens in the neighbors yard

I got the morning blues

Oh so bad

Honey come and kiss me

They're the worst I've ever had

Woke up this morning with a pain in my head

So I crawled right back in bed

Alone in the morning make you feel so bad

lonesome blues make you feel so sad

-Traditional Song, Jim Kweskin Version

The Indiana Fiddler's Gathering

Saturday Afternoon at the Indiana Fiddler's Gathering
Copyright 2014 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
16" x 20"
Prints available on Fine Art America

Every year I attend the Indiana Fiddler's Gathering.  It is an amazing couple of days where my friends and I camp out and play old-time music 24-7.  At the entrance to the festival they always string bright white lights from the trees.  Imagine the music drifting through the air.  A few hours after I painted this the fireflies came out.  Sigh... next year's festival seems too far away.

Without music, life would be a mistake.

-Nietzsche

Flowers of the Spring

Flowers of the Spring
Copyright 2014 Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
16" x 20"

Now, my fair'st friend,

I would I had some flowers o' the spring that might

Become your time of day.

-Shakespeare, A Winter's Tale

Honey and Roses

Honey and Roses
Copyright 2014 Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
16" x 20"

Hope is the only bee that makes honey without flowers.

-Robert Green Ingersoll 

This is a still life painting of peonies and roses from my garden.  I did two version of it one with a yellow background and one with a red background which I will post next week. This yellow one started with a first layer of paint where I abstractly depicted Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumblebee."  I can still taste the honey.

Below are two photos of the work in progress where the underpainting can still be seen.

Koteewi Park

Koteewi Park
Copyright 2014 Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
16" x 20"

This past weekend I participated in the Hamilton County Paint Out.  It was an amazing experience and challenge to have just 2 and a half days to create a painting for the competition!  This painting of a spot in beautiful Koteewi Park won Honorable Mention.

Below is a photo of the painting in progress at the scene of the crime...

Now There Is A Pearl

Now There Is A Pearl
Copyright 2014 Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
16" x 20"

An oyster opens his mouth

to swallow one drop.

Now there is a pearl.

Let yourself be silently drawn by the pull of what you really love.

-Rumi

Roses in May

Roses in May
Copyright 2014 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
16" x 20"

And she was fair as is the rose in May.

-Geoffrey Chaucer

Tulips in the Sun

Tulips in the Sun
Copyright 2014 Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
11" x 14"

Is it so small a thing

To have enjoyed the sun,

To have lived light in the spring,

To have loved, to have thought, to have done. 

-Matthew Arnold

 Join me for painting classes at the Indianapolis Art Center this summer!

Expressionist Painting Register Here:
 http://reg131.imperisoft.com/IndianapolisArtCenter/ProgramDetail/3138323232/Registration.aspx
Acrylic Painting Register Here:
http://reg131.imperisoft.com/IndianapolisArtCenter/ProgramDetail/3138323332/Registration.aspx

Baby Moses

Moses in the Reedbed
Copyright 2014 Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
16" x 20"

It has been awhile since I've done a more modern expressionist painting or a Bible story.  Here the baby Moses lays in the basket floating down the Nile river.  The precarious fate of the infant along with the image of the river has always haunted me.  An orphan whose mother cast him out into the dangerous waters because it was his only hope of survival. 

Since I was cut from the reedbed,
I have made this crying sound.

Anyone apart from someone he loves
understands what I say.

Anyone pulled from a source
longs to go back. 

-Rumi

Join me for Expressionist Painting at the Indianapolis Art Center June 2014!
Register here:
 http://reg131.imperisoft.com/IndianapolisArtCenter/ProgramDetail/3138323232/Registration.aspx

Enjoying the Roses

Enjoying the Roses
Copyright 2014 Addie Hirschten
Acrylic on Canvas
16" x 20"

One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming outside our windows today.

-Dale Carnegie

Join me for Expressionist Painting at the Indianapolis Art Center June 2014!
Register here:
 http://reg131.imperisoft.com/IndianapolisArtCenter/ProgramDetail/3138323232/Registration.aspx

The Apple of My Eye

The Apple of My Eye
Copyright 2014 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
11" x 14"

Flower of this purple dye,

Hit with Cupid's archery,

Sink in apple of his eye.

-Shakespeare, Midsummer Night's Dream

I created this painting at a workshop with the amazing artist, Pam Newell.  You can find her work at: http://www.pnewellart.com/

Thanks Pam for being such an inspiration!

My Daughter, Age 3

My Daughter, Age 3
Copyright 2014 Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
8" x 10"

Everything that lives is holy, life delights in life.

-William Blake

Portrait of Em

Portrait of Em
Copyright 2014 Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
16" x 20"

Life is full of beauty. Notice it. Notice the bumble bee, the small child, and the smiling faces. Smell the rain, and feel the wind. Live your life to the fullest potential, and fight for your dreams.

-Ashley Smith

The Secret Garden

The Secret Garden
Copyright 2014 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
18" x 24"
Currently on Display at the Patachou Restaurant, 49th and Penn, Indianapolis

If you look the right way, you can see that the whole world is a garden.

- Frances Hodgson Burnett,The Secret Garden

Your Rose

Your Rose
Copyright 2014 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
18" x 24"
Currently at the Patachou Restaurant 49th and Penn Indianapolis

It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important.

-Antoine de Saint-Exupéry,The Little Prince

"Is the spring coming?" he said. "What is it like?"...

"It is the sun shining on the rain and the rain falling on the sunshine...”

-Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden

Roses are Red

Roses are Red
Copyright 2014 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
18" x 24"

Roses are red,

Violets are blue,

This poem sucks,

But hey, I love you.

-Roses are Red Parody, Author Unknown

The Tree Which Moves

The Tree Which Moves
Copyright 2014 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
16" x 20"
Original Available at the Art IN Hand Gallery

“The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see nature all ridicule and deformity... and some scarce see nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself.”

-William Blake