Road to New Bern, revisited - by North Carolina Painter, Sue Scoggins

There's another show coming up.  This will be the third this year.  I feel like a machine. In order not to get burned out, it takes new venues, new subjects, and new techniques to get me all lit up again.

Sometimes the hardest thing to do is find new subjects or a new story to paint.  It seems I've been painting wildflowers since the day I was born.  There will be plenty of them at the October show at the Little Art Gallery in Raleigh, October 10th.  It is so much fun, slinging the paint on in the beginning, Jackson Pollock style, then carving out those little peeps of blooms that are hiding in the middle of all the chaos.   But it's time for something new lest those wildflowers start to wilt.

Today, I decided I would paint over an old painting. The intention was to have another "subject" at the show. So often those beginnings turn out to be the best paintings!  While  perusing through some old images, I remembered the painting "Road to New Bern".  Every time I would go to see my husband, who was ill at the time, in New Bern, I would pass this old barn.  I had the barn on my mind. With all the colors of the painting still in tact, I decided to put paint on very thick with a pallet knife but let the random colors of the old painting show through in little peeps.  I began with large swipes of white paint for the roof of the barn.

Basically, the rest of the painting was surrounding the white barn with color.  

Lots of crazy combinations of thalo blue, pthalo green, and indian yellow.  Juicy color.  Pretty fun.

RECAP and ONWARD - Back from Shangri-La

Shangri-La was a place is the fictional novel, Lost Horizon, written in 1933 by British author James Hilton.  It was a perfect place.  A dream.

sitting on a table in a vintage shop

Spending the summer in Italy was truly that.  A pipe dream that, never in my wildest dreams, would I have thought would occur.  The people I met and the art that I saw was almost more than I could take in.  I saw art everywhere.  In the architecture, in museums, in cafes, at street markets, sculptures on playgrounds, symphonies at sunrise. And it was old art...an authentic representation of life.....a wedding, the universal love between mother and child (I could write forever about that), history over the centuries.  Where would we be without art!  Even the shoemaker! It became ingrained in me.  To think that 10 years ago, I didn't know a thing about art.  I had only been to Europe on a few business trips but never to "live" and experience it. The art that I saw was more than I could have ever seen in any art history class.  To think, people live and breath it over there.  What a privilege.  Arranged by a friend, I was even able to see the Queen's art collection in Buckingham Palace before I came back home. I am humbled to have been able to go.  I mean, who gets to do these things?

on an
Arezzo street

a wedding documented on canvas in Anacapri

bye little Rose

It's September 1.
Time to get back to work. I said goodbye to my little Rosie, picked up Peacock Georgio's feather, gathered fourteen paintings, carefully rolled them up, and carried them under my arm across the Atlantic.  Neither heat, nor rails, nor airports could keep these paintings from coming to Raleigh. These 13 acres of Italian Borgo San Pietro gardens, captured on canvas, have travelled on trains to Naples, ferries to Capri, planes to London, the Gatwick Express, and finally on American Airlines back across the pond to Raleigh.

trains

ferries

See you soon, October 10, Little Art Gallery, Cameron Village, Raleigh, North Carolina.

After The Borgo - Goodbye by North Carolina Painter, Sue Scoggins

Blurred is sometimes better

It’s Friday.  Was it worth it?  An absolute, “YES!” 

Goodbye Borgo.

Goodbye gardens and gardeners.

Goodbye eggs florentine, waiters and drivers everywhere. 

Goodbye open windows, fire flies and horses grazing in the night.

Goodbye scorching days and dusty roads, icy rivers and muddy trails.

Goodbye cold showers, baby scorpions and lizards in my bed.

Goodbye Mr. Rooster and Georgio, the peacock.
Goodbye, huge black wolves of Tuscany.

And to the staff….

Goodbye florist Rosie from UK.

Goodbye concierge Anika from Finland.

Goodbye reception Lucrezia and Louisa.

You know who you are.

Goodbye to Caterine who smiles with each dish she washes.

The housekeepers…..and to the beautiful Stephanie who irons…. 

You are the gold nuggets of the Borgo. 

Goodbye artist residency Borgo Santo Pietro, Palazetto, Chiusdino, Italy, 2015

BIRTHDAYS!

It's my birthday today!  How lucky to spend a birthday here at the Borgo. (Actually, it's tomorrow but I didn't have the heart to tell my breakfast friends.)  How exciting to be sung to!  These breakfast buddies are so speeeeecial.  They make me smile every single day!

Could not stop laughing at Carlos singing the birthday song.

So fortunate!

It's been three weeks and the time is almost gone. To be honest, I’m a little “painted out”. But I’ve discovered the whole wax and wane thing must be true and I’m sure a new surge will come in a day or two. I guess this is what an addiction is like.  I want to quit but can’t!  Sort of like some people and chocolate cake….but mine is paint!   

……A DAY OR TWO LATER……

Walk to San Galgano

Winding down, means cleaning up the studio, throwing away near empty tubes of paint, “spent” canvases and old disposable pallets. Let’s smear this with a pallet knife. Can’t waste that paint on the pallet. NEVER WASTE PAINT!  Maybe a little dab here or a little dab there.  OH KNOW.  It’s happening.  Abstracts! The next one was painted over a dining scene I had painted of the Borgo.  I didn't like it.  SO........what a great place to put the leftover paint!

After the Borgo

Friday is my last day. 

Time For Some Abstracts

It’ hard to believe that it’s been three weeks. Lessons this week have been slow so the time has been spent working on paintings for an October show at The Little Art Gallery in Raleigh, NC. Interesting how the gallery wants a series of wildflower paintings.  My home this month has been in the midst of a sea of almost paradise gardens, complete with it's own peacocks and alpacas. 

To be honest, I’m a little “painted out”. Will be ready to be a “real” tourist staring next Friday. In the meantime, painting is the best way to stay productive and the best way to keep practicing. Kind of want to get a tad more expressive and abstract.  This actually was inspired from the underside of my pallet. I had used a piece of velum for my pallet and this is how the colors just happened to appear from underneath. 

The Art of Making Art - by Sue Scoggins, North Carolina Painter

Enough of talking about my days off….it’s time to get back to the artist in residency part. I had the most delightful student today.  Besides the fact that she was 50 and I thought she was 26….I was tempted to throw black paint all over her canvas….but…I restrained myself. 

The studio is open all day.  From 7:30 to 7:30.  Georgio, the peacock, quite often waits by the door. The weather is so beautiful in the wee hours of the morning and late evening. That’s when I paint. I read, write and nap in the middle of the day.  Getting this European life style down pretty good. Even getting the hairpin turns down pretty good, but we won’t  talk about that. 

Haley, from the UK, was the perfect student. She approached me yesterday for a lesson, saying she wanted to learn about color and oils.  She loves abstract!  YAY!  Just the right person to share art with. She had a degree in photography, already had the eye, knew about focal points,  light and darks. She wanted to learn how to layer.  I was ecstatic!

The first thing we did was wipe magenta all over the canvas.  Then orange.  Then yellow.  We could hardly contain ourselves when unimaginable colors came to light  and set the tone for a beautiful sunset.  Shapes occurred out of nothing.  Then I gave her some terped phalo blue and magenta…she added drips…moved her canvas from side to side..…before she knew it there were mountain ranges. Then we laid it aside to dry for the day. 

SO COOL!!!!!!!

For the rest of the time we experimented with making colors.  New colors out of only 5 basic colors..plus white.  Dominant, complimentary and spice colors…every color in the rainbow could be made out of those colors. There ya have it.  Our time was finished. Boo!

Now she knew the basics to go home with.  Buy just those 5 colors, two brushes, a pallet knife and finish up her masterpiece.  I can’t wait to see how it turns out.  Bellisimo!!!!  New art.  Better than that…a new friend. 

Ponytail hair for 26m days

Georgio

Power of Pink

Does anyone know why sunflowers turn a certain way Just asking. 

As  little girl, I never did like pink.  I guess because I thought of it as a sign of being weak. Don't know why, I thought I always had to be strong and independent.  I had a wonderful childhood with wonderful parents.  Who knows why we think what we think.  But, now that I'm all grown up, I suppose I don't feel like I have to prove anything.  And guess what... I love pink.  I’m writing this, while sitting at a table in a shady hillside garden in Montalcino. Its day two of my “holiday” and I just ordered a caprese salad.  It’s the size of a large hubcap! 

Speaking of hubcaps. With a wedding at the Borgo, it was suggested that I take a couple of days off,  a “holiday”.  Now, sometimes I get in a bit of trouble when I’m off my leash.  Yet, I’m thankful for friends and family who have realized that keeping me corralled, at this point in my life might make me very, very sad. In spite of the fact that it makes them worry, they’ve had to let me go.

Yesterday, my first day off, began with very good news.  Four paintings sold to a wonderful lawyer from Miami and her two daughters.  That was that!  Gratzi!  Gratzi! 

Next was the fact that I didn’t have to drive the Borgo “ferrari”.  I was the recipient of the Borgo VW Polo.  “Yay!  All is good!”  Uh oh! Trouble entered my mind when I opened the door and found a half empty bottle of motor oil in the back seat.  Hmmmm.  That's ok.  I'm strong and independent...remember.  What's a little car trouble. I'll just wear pink and act like a damsel in distress. 

My plan was to go to the beach and take my sketch book. A few wrong turns, scorching heat, crowds at the beach, closed cafes, and closed gas stations, I decided to just tootle my way back  home through a few local villages and find a cafe.  This last particular town was tiny and its roads ran very steep and narrow along stone wall drop offs.   Before I knew it, with the smell of a burning rubber clutch and brakes, my little Polo could not make it up the hill. “Oh God!  What do I do?” (Funny how religion comes into play when you’re about to die!)  I slowly backed down trying to make the hair pin turn in reverse, the clutch and breaks began to weaken…and there ya have it..gear in first, my entire body weight firmly planted on the brake and the emergency brake pulled tight ….I was teetering on the edge of that stone wall……disaster!   and it was the BORGO car!  WHAT WAS I TO DO???  Yell, “HELPO!!!”  

Thank you God!  Thank you for the 3 Australians who happened to appear out from under the archway of this deserted town. English speaking!  Desperate!  I had to put my faith in them to save me. They secured the back tires with mega large stones and I climbed out of the passenger side of the car. One brave Aussie got in and with dust flying, wheels screeching, brought little Polo to safety.  We were all sweating bullets! Mine were pink!  And, again, I could read another headline….STUPIDO AMERICANO ARTIST DIES OFF CLIFF AND TAKES AUSTRALIANS WITH HER!

Don't know why I shared this.