PASTEL PAINTINGS BY NICK PAYNE

Thank you for visiting my online collection of pastel paintings. If you are not familiar with the virtues of pastels, please read the ARTICLE about why I love pastels.

PASTELS IN THE POND COLLECTION

For many years I have been fortunate to live near streams or ponds, which inspired several paintings.

A small pond at edge of our property in the country of northeastern Washington is shown in “Pond by a Highway”. The painting “Floating Leaves” used the same site, but the paintings are very different.

Later when I moved to Ferndale, I lived near Nubgaard Pond. The remaining paintings in this section borrow material from Nubgaard Pond.

"Feathers and Leaves" offers a closer look at what is often overlooked. Most people see the mud at the edge of a pond as “brown” but the colors are more varied, and even could be described as beautiful to those who pause to look closely. The mud at the edge of Nubgaard Pond is a burial ground for feathers, twigs, and leaves shed by birds and trees around the pond - and a reminder of our own cycle of birth and death.

A few paintings in this section invite a short poem about the relationship between nature and human experience. Although I'm not a poet, I think of some of my paintings as visual poetry, so I enjoy writing an occasional haiku or tanka as a companion to the paintings. The forms of haiku or tanka typically focus on nature, are brief, and are structured by syllables instead of rhymes.

Alder Leaves and Faerie

after the geese left
and the alders dropped their leaves
a faerie sprinkled
hues for autumn's lullaby -
soft purples blues golds and grays

Woodland and Water

just as the wake of geese
weaves woodland, water and sky
into arabesques
so is the divine pattern
woven body, mind and soul

Lily Pad and Frog

opportunities
in the lily pad kingdom
come when patience reigns

Summer Grass

an ancient dryad
dreaming of summer grasses
awakens no more
and sylphs honor her seasons
with leaves shed by alder trees

The Blue Rowboat

invisible hosts
in numinous alder groves
sing of new leaves
while a gentle breeze keeps time
on the stern of a boat

Link HERE to order reproductions from Fine Art America, or contact Birdseye Art Studio at nicolaspayne@gmail.com

Thank you for visiting my online collection of pastel paintings. If you are not familiar with the virtues of pastels, please read the ARTICLE about why I love pastels.

PASTELS IN THE ROCK COLLECTION

Most of the rocks in this collection of paintings are from the beaches of the Pacific Northwest. Appreciation for rocks has a long history. Historians, for example, say that at least two millenia back in time, the Chinese collected special rocks for aesthetic purposes. For Taoist monks certain stones were symbolic of the Tao. They used "scholar's stones" for contemplation and meditation in preparation for writing and painting. 

Gongshi is the Chinese term for special stones that meet the above criteria and evoke something from the viewer. The transliterated word gong means "spirit" and shi equals "stone". 

I share the Taoist appreciation for stones. Beach rocks are too ordinary to be scholar's stones, but like gonshi, the beach rocks in my paintings result from an array of creative forces within the earth, under the sea, and on the shore. Their variety and beauty is a marvel.

My recent paintings of beach rocks are “Glass Float and Beach Rocks” and a “Congregation of Stones”. I have two glass floats in my studio. Both were beach finds. Although glass floats still wash up on the coastal beaches of the Pacific NW, the fishing industry has replaced them with plastic floats. Today, glass floats are made for sale to collectors, not for the fishing industry.

All the paintings in this section feature rocks of various shapes and sizes. Why paint common rocks? In the ordinary things of nature, I see the extraordinary.

Link HERE to order reproductions from Fine Art America, or contact Birdseye Art Studio by email at nicolaspayne@gmail.com

Thank you for visiting my online collection of pastel paintings. If you are not familiar with the virtues of pastels, please read the ARTICLE about why I love pastels.

PASTELS IN THE SHELLS COLLECTION

Like beach rocks, shells are easily transported to the studio for studying details. And like my paintings of beach rocks, I see shells as an expression of the same Creative Force in which we humans "live and move and have our being".  I can't paint an invisible force, but I can represent the passage of the Creative Force in the natural world through paintings of water, rocks, shells, feathers, flowers, and leaves.

I like how Emily Dickinson expressed her appreciation for nature:

This is my letter to the world
That never wrote to me - 
The simple news that Nature told, 
With tender majesty. 
Her message is committed
To hands I cannot see; 
For love of her, sweet countrymen,
Judge tenderly of me! 

In our busy lives, with many of our hours devoted to processing data on computer and phone screens, we often overlook the importance of our relationship with nature. Emily Dickinson's poem is an ideal statement for many of my paintings which focus on the often overlooked color harmonies and smaller forms of nature.

"Shells of the Puget Sound" - One of my aims in painting these shells was to make them as concrete to the eye as they are to touch. The Puget Sound is the name of the inland sea waters of Washington State.

"Sand Dollar" - Sand dollars are fairly common on the Washington coast. The shape reminds me of a mandala, which is a Sanskrit word for circle. Usually it refers to a circular, symbolic representation of the Universe.  The shape in the center has five petals. The Pythagoreans thought of five as “hieros gamos”, the marriage between heaven and earth.  Five is the number of the human being, symbolizing the four limbs and the head that controls the limbs. And then there are five senses: sight – hearing – taste – smell – touch.

"Shells on a Sandy Beach" - for this painting, I put together three types of shells, common to the ocean. 

"Limpet Shell" - The conical shells are found on rocky beaches. A limpet forms a perfect fit to a particular spot on its home-base rock. When the tide is in, the limpet moves to search for food, but when the tide goes out, it returns to its exact spot on the home-base rock. Moving limpets at low tide to another rock might result in its death.

"Shells of the Sea of Galilee" - Traveling in Israel, I found many small shells on the shore of the Sea of Galilee.  I brought some home, thinking I might paint them someday.  We don't know the occupations of all the disciples of Jesus, but we know for certain that Peter, Andrew, James, and John were fishermen. So it seems likely to me that the some of disciples, and perhaps even Jesus, at some point in their lives held the tiny shells in the palm of their hand and marveled at them, just as I. 

Link HERE to order reproductions from Fine Art America, or contact me at nicolaspayne@gmail.com

Thank you for visiting my online collection of pastel paintings. If you are not familiar with the virtues of pastels, please read the ARTICLE about why I love pastels.

PASTELS IN THE SHORE COLLECTION

I have fond memories of boating, fishing, swimming, and exploring the shoreline of the salt water bays of Washington's Puget Sound. Later when I accepted a teaching position 300 miles away from the sea in the northeast mountains of Washington State, a perfect family vacation was house-sitting on Vashon Island for my brother when he took his vacation. My brother still lives on Vashon Island, which is located in the Puget Sound near Seattle. Some of my favorite paintings of the shore and its treasures were a result of those vacations.

I made several paintings of the lighthouse on Maury Island. A small bridge almost seamlessly connects Maury and Vashon Island. As a symbol, a lighthouse suggests guidance; perhaps that is part of the reason I like including lighthouses in paintings. If you visit Vashon Island, be sure to see the lighthouse, which is open to the public.

I painted the abandoned boathouse at Lisabuela Beach before it was torn down to make way for a public park. 

Broken glass and discarded beer cans don't belong on a beach; however, the careless debris are part of my beachcombing experience.  Over time, the sharp edges of the shattered glass are ground smooth by the action of waves and sand.  Visually of interest, they look like small pieces of stained glass. 

The painting of the woman on the beach is intended to evoke the experience of sitting quietly by the water, letting thoughts come and go like waves lapping the shore, until the mind is as empty as a crab shell.

Private Beach represents the freedom we experience when we are on an isolated stretch of beach. 

A glass float is a treasured find on a beach in the Pacific NW. Although they are less common today because they are no longer used to keep fishing nets afloat,  some glass floats are still circling in the Pacific Ocean. Eventually, they wash up on the shores of Alaska, Washington and Oregon. How could I resist painting a glass float?

Link HERE to effortlessly order reproductions from Fine Art America, or contact Birdseye Art Studio through nicolaspayne@gmail.com

Thank you for visiting my online collection of pastel paintings. If you are not familiar with the virtues of pastels, please read the ARTICLE about why I love pastels.

PASTELS IN THE FLORALS COLLECTION

An art book tracing the history of flowers in painting would be unwieldy. During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, flowers in a painting were given symbolic meaning, and the use of florals in art proliferated. I have used flowers to carry symbolic content too, but my delight in the color and form of flowers is reason enough to paint them. The history and tradition of painting flowers is so long that it's a challenge to find a fresh approach. Now and then, the tried and true is worth repeating. 

Once in a while, someone thoughtfully shares cut flowers with us, and I'm inspired to paint them. For example, the Dahlias in this collection of paintings were given to us. We put them in a Mason jar because the jar was handy. The dahlias are gone, but the spirit of the dahlias continue on as a painting.

The same is true for the Flowers from my Daughter, Christine.  The unusual color harmonies of the combined flowers work, perhaps because in nature, as in the painting, the color green brings the other colors into accord with each other.

I respond to color as to music, not hearing colors as musical notes but feeling color similarly. Nine Daisies feels like a jazz composition with its strong rhythms and its slightly discordant notes of color. Can you feel the music of the color and shapes in this painting?

Flowers have visual interest throughout their cycle of life. The bloom of Spent Tulip is gone, but the field of energy around the plant is still vibrant. 

A flower Blooming receives energy from the sun, which seems separate from the inner life force of the plant, but energy is one. The creative life force in nature is the same force in me because in the Creative Force, "we live and move and have our being".

Link HERE to order reproductions from Fine Art America, or contact Birdseye Art Studio through nicolaspayne@gmail.com

Thank you for visiting my online collection of pastel paintings. If you are not familiar with the virtues of pastels, please read the ARTICLE about why I love pastels.

PASTELS IN THE LEAVES COLLECTION

When talking with young children about nature, many parents share the wonder of flowers, but often overlook the wonder of leaves. Most of us take leaves for granted because they are more numerous, and seem ordinary compared to the glory of flowers. But to the eye of the painter, leaves are as fascinating in form and color as flowers, and often as beautiful.

Link HERE to easily order reproductions from Fine Art America, or contact Birdseye Art Studio through nicolaspayne@gmail.com

Thank you for visiting my online collection of pastel paintings. If you are not familiar with the virtues of pastels, please read the ARTICLE about why I love pastels.

PASTELS IN THE LANDSCAPE COLLECTION

I grew up in Tacoma and Seattle. After graduating from the University of Washington in Seattle, and after two years in Belfast, N. Ireland volunteering to work with young people, I moved to a remote area of Washington State to teach school. I was dedicated to teaching, but I also made time in the evenings and on weekends for a parallel career as an artist. The area where I lived was sparsely populated. Peace was the pervasive energy and the paintings have that peace. Most of the paintings I produced at that time were not professionally scanned, and I no longer have them because they sold. 

I still have a few originals like "Country Road" and "Rising Mist", and a few other paintings from Ferry County posted here.  They were scanned professionally, so prints are available.

"Hovander Homestead" and “Raven’s Bench” are more recent paintings from Whatcom County, which is where I live now. I live just outside of the city of Ferndale, but perhaps as a result of twenty years in the country, painting cityscapes doesn’t interest me.

“Hovander Homestead” is near Ferndale, Washington, not far from salt water, which explains the gulls I added to the painting. “Raven’s Bench” is a small Wildlife Refuge near the Fairhaven District in Bellingham, Washington

Many pastel painters employ a style similar to impressionism in that it is suggestive rather than explicit. The overall effect of this style can be exciting and beautiful. My approach is a little more contemplative and measured, perhaps because mediation is integral my process of painting.

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Erina Booker, an Australian poet, has written poems for the paintings in the Color Personified Series. Follow Erina Booker at https://www.facebook.com/erinaspoetry/ For her books of poetry, enter “Erina Booker” in Amazon’s search window

WHITE

Aging

I find as I grow older I grow lighter,
the denseness in me seeps out to the earth
and light moves in to fill all the new spaces
while I move through an ongoing re-birth.
The cells within my body can now breathe,
my head now radiates this new-found light,
I'm stepping ever lightly on this Earth
and Life becomes more precious to my sight.
It is a gift to me, for which I've waited -
my youth was spent in many shades of black,
but Time now rolls ecstatic at my feet,
full recompense arrives, and in abundance,
for that which I did once so sorely lack.

© Erina Booker
From ‘Between the Layers’, 2013

THE COLOR RED
Sorceress
She’s a dream catcher, a dream weaver –
Lives this out,
The energy of red, a dream believer –
Without doubt,
Vibrant, holds the energies of earth,
Red of the grounding chakra in full worth,
Riding high –
The red bull’s eye –
Guides your soul to a re-birth
©Erina Booker

THE COLOR ORANGE

Zest
The creative energy of fire
Seen within this orange glow
Progressing always, from desire –
Such a magnitude to know.

Joy in living is her force
Lit from within the passion glows
Warm your hands within her aura
Spirit, verve, and sparkle flows.

Like the orange flare of sunset
Reflected in a topaz stream
Bridging worlds with little effort
An all-pervasive ideal dream.

Bridging red and yellow too –
A bright, vivacious, happy hue.
©Erina Booker

THE COLOR YELLOW

Bewitching
This elf returns me now to childhood’s dreams
And poems of wee folk caring for all plants,
With Shakespeare’s plays my memory also streams –
Midsummer nights when faeries took their chance.

My childhood poems held a magic truth,
There is a special carer of each flower
Whose every need an elf is sent to soothe
To nurture and perpetuate its power.

They shake the seeds from deep within each bloom,
Or send them high on every passing breeze
Each seed assisted by a downy plume,
Then dropping to soft earth with sweetest ease.

This yellow-tulip elf, with pointed ears,
Has honed her skills through seasons and through years.
©Erina Booker

THE COLOR GREEN

Ripe
Summer’s mission:
to revel in the green,
crisp as an apple
viridescent
propitious –
celebrate regeneration
and the circularity of seasons
not linear
not tick-tock numbers
on your wrist…
birth     death
plant     harvest
over and over;

the joy of bursting fruitfulness
reassurance of provision
bite down hard…    
the apple opens

cut it crossways
and find the star in its centre
astral fruit
we are all stardust…
You too – apple of my eye!
©Erina Booker


THE COLOR BLUE

Joy
Blue lake, blue sky, blue bird, blue eyes,
A little girl looks out at me,
A summer scene, so fresh, so free,
The little girl so kind and wise.

On her hand she holds a prize,
A jay is sitting peacefully,
Blue lake, blue sky, blue bird, blue eyes,
The sweet young girl looks out at me.

A perfect day, a rare surprise,
I feel a part of what I see
Surrounded by such clear beauty
Into which my spirit flies,
Blue lake, blue sky, blue bird, blue eyes.
©Erina Booker

THE COLOR INDIGO
Depth
A small realm where we all can go -
Deep down,  
A spirit place where we will grow -
Life's crown,
Available to us right from the start,
A fount in which to refresh soul and heart,
We can know
Indigo,
There is no cause to ever part.
(c)Erina Booker

THE COLOR VIOLET

Enchantress

It's the smile that draws you in -
creases round the eyes and mouth
child of the sixties 
whose values were not lost

pied and brindled hair
holds all her ages
contentedly

dextrous, creative hands -
fine muscles
veins like blue canals

radiating 
in her patchwork jacket 
and artful scarf,
at home beside the lake 
framed by an alder

like a genie, she appears 
her presence is a gift
she is the colour violet:
mix of blue with drops of red,
mind and heart,
deep and loving;

Make your wish...

(c) Erina Booker

SILVER

Mercurial
Slick as a silver skate cutting the ice –
Patterned rays,
Bold as a mirrored reflection, thus seen twice –
Double gaze,
He knows his future, sees where he’s to go,
Under brightest lights he means to glow,
Fire and ice -
Roll the dice -
Reality of dreams now show.
©Erina Booker

GOLD
Aura
She emanates the gold she works with –
Byzantine,
Its power in religion, magic, myth –
Numinous sheen,
Its indestructibility and scarcity,
Its purity adds to its divine quality,
Transmits its worth –
To give re-birth –
To humans’ bond with sanctity.

Her icons made with strong, inner devotion –
Venerate,
A constancy thus vowed with dedication –
Undertake,
Strong allegiance to this work of creativity,
Commitment to this holy liability,
No betrayal –
This portrayal –
Confirms her sensibility.
©Erina Booker

BLACK

Ally
Grief has befriended me –
I did not know,
A comfort cloak has set me free –
Black as a crow.
The scented night has always been my peace,
The dark envelops all, and grants surcease,
No more can cry
All life held high
My spirit stills, and finds increase.
©Erina Booker

ABOUT THE COLOR PERSONIFIED SERIES

Many painters have a special sensitivity to color because color is one of the two fundamental elements in constructing a painting. (The other is form.)  Science informs us that color and everything else is vibrating energy. What if the energy our eyes and brains interpret as color took physical form? What if color appeared human or near human? How would it appear? To me, color often seems feminine, though not always. Some colors might take form as a young person. Other colors might be better represented by an older person. A few colors might be non-humane, elf-like, for example, which is how I imagine the color yellow. Some colors feel hot, while others feel cool. Certain colors are sensual and alluring. Some colors are spiritual.

White is a special color. It is achromatic (without hue). White light, as in an aura, is seen as white when the incoming light to our eye stimulates all three types of color sensitive cone cells in the eye in roughly equal amounts.  If we take a color wheel with equal amounts of the primary colors of red, yellow, and blue, and spin it rapidly, we see white. Black is achromatic, also. Black pigment is an important color for artists because it resists fading better than other pigments. Black is a basic color for outlining and drawing. Black was a standard color for shadows until the Impressionists painted reflected colors in shadows. Most of the Impressionists used black sparingly.  The word black is often used to indicate extreme darkness of spirit, such as "black despair"; however, I believe there is always hope and opportunity in any darkness we might experience.

Although gold and silver are not colors, they also might be given human form. Iconographers have used gold in their work for centuries. It's reserved for Christ and for the halos of saints. Gold suggests the eternal, uncreated light of God. Both silver and gold in a painting are difficult to photograph. Silver appears gray, and gold appears brownish yellow.The meaning of color varies by culture, and throughout history. For example, color in Byzantine icons have a specific meaning equivalent to the written word, and in that sense, spiritual ideas were communicated through color and combinations of color. Often, the pigments were not mixed, but used pure, and floated over each other in layers to create dynamic fields of color and energy.  

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Thank you for visiting my online collection of pastel paintings. If you are not familiar with the virtues of pastels, please read the ARTICLE about why I love pastels.

PASTELS IN THE PORTRAIT COLLECTION

Among my favorite models were students, my own children, or the children of family members. It's easier to work with children, because they are less concerned with how they look than adults.

Realistic portraits are demanding, unlike the more simple effort of painting a bowl of fruit. If a banana is slightly off, no one notices; if a nose is slightly off, everyone notices, except maybe the artist. In addition, we see our friends and family through a screen of affection, which improves their appearance. Unless the artist can look through a similar screen of affection, and make slight adjustments that align with how family and friends see a person, the portrait will not satisfy. The screen of affection is why a portrait of a family member is easier for me, and why the results are usually more satisfying to others.

The market for a traditional painted portrait has disappeared with the rise of photography for good reasons. A photograph is quicker, cheaper, and the technology is available to all. Technology, as well as fashion, has driven most artists away from painting portraits, and from realism in general, for that matter. Even the photographer's bread and butter income through portraits has been altered by the ubiquitous selfie made with a cell phone camera. 

For many people, a photographic portrait is as disposable as a paper plate. A selfie posted on Facebook is ancient history in a few days. A fine portrait by a painter, however, may become a valued heirloom. If you want a professionally painted portrait, many talented artists artists advertise on the Internet.  I don't paint portraits on commission anymore. When I include a person in a painting, it's usually because of an idea I'm exploring - such as the color personified series - or because something about the person interests me visually.

The portraits displayed here are a few representative examples from numerous portraits I painted over a period of many years. Some of the portraits are family members. Some are students. Some lived in the community where I taught school. Some are friends. Most of the portraits are in private collections.

To order reproductions, link HERE , or contact Birdseye Art Studio for more information at nicolaspayne@gmail.com

Thank you for visiting my online collection of pastel paintings. If you are not familiar with the virtues of pastels, please read the ARTICLE about why I love pastels.

PASTELS IN THE BENCHES OF LAKE PADDEN COLLECTION

Lake Padden in Bellingham, WA, like many public parks, has a large number of memorial benches on the trail around the lake. The benches are a memorial to the deceased, and also serve as a place of rest for the passerby. In my paintings, the benches serve as a symbol for death; yet, the abundant life of the lakeside setting suggests hope for continuing life after death.  The seasons vary from painting to painting, but the theme is the same.

I worked on the series for a couple of years. Then I had a solo exhibit of the series of Lake Padden paintings at the Jansen Art Center in Lynden, WA. The exhibit was my first opportunity to see all the paintings together. 

The paintings in this series reflect my experience of Lake Padden over many seasons and years. I have run, walked, and biked the trail around the lake. I have swam in the lake. I have lingered on every bench. Time is represented by the seasons in the paintings. You might enjoy my ARTICLE about time in art.

Link HERE to order reproductions from Fine Art America, or contact Birdseye Art Studio for more information - nicolaspayne@gmail.com

PASTELS IN THE CHAKRA COLLECTION

Seven key spiritual centers in our bodies are said to be located at the sites of our endocrine glands, according to contemporary literature on the topic. The spiritual centers can be associated with Newton’s classic colors of the visible light spectrum. In the chakra series of paintings, I have paired seven paintings with the spiritual centers they represent. The paintings have a dominate color that matches the center’s energy, but they are multihued because nature is multihued. As I painted each plant, my awareness was on the specific spiritual center being represented. The paintings can be viewed by the public at the A.R.E. in Virginia Beach, VA

For more information about the series, please read the ARTICLE.

Link HERE to easily order reproductions from Fine Art America, or contact Birdseye Art Studio for more information at nicolaspayne@gmail.com

All original paintings offered as reproductions have been professionally scanned by one of the premier art reproduction companies in the nation using up-to-date technology. The process is expensive, but the results are superior. Birdseye Art Studio proudly offers high quality, giclée reproductions in full or half-sizes with archival materials, including UV-resistant varnish. The longevity is excellent.

The giclée reproductions are available on archival Moab Entrada Rag paper, or on museum-wrap canvas with sturdy stretcher bars to prevent warping.  The term "museum-wrap" means the edges of the canvas are black so the painting can be hung with or without frames. A hanging wire is pre-installed. 

If you have questions about purchasing giclée reproductions, or you want to discuss purchasing original paintings, please contact Nick at nicolaspayne@gmail.com

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Thank you for visiting my online collection of pastel paintings. If you are not familiar with the virtues of pastels, please read the ARTICLE about why I love pastels.

PASTELS IN THE CACTI COLLECTION

My favorite plants at conservatories are the varieties of cacti, to my eyes strange and delightful because I live in the cool, cloudy climate of the Pacific NW.  Seeing cacti in their natural environment was a highlight of visits to the Southwest and to the Middle East. It's is deja vu experience. The forms of the plants seem familiar, as if I have lived in their arid environment.

An art collecting couple have one of my original cacti paintings in their home in southern California. Another couple in eastern Washington have a large reproduction on canvas of one of my cacti paintings in their home. The paintings (along with other works of art) are crowning elements of their interior design, but paintings in a home are so much more: the visual arts are to seeing what music is to hearing. 

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FOLDED PAPER

a bird's eye soaring

over hills, valleys, and roads -

folded paper

THE MATISSE

the present moment

and the luminous Matisse

lost to reveries

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My first serious acrylic paintings were large semi-abstracts influenced by my study of early 20th Century artists, such as  Paul Cézanne, Pablo Picasso, Wassily Kandinsky, and Paul Klee, plus the influence of related artworks such as icons and Persian miniatures.  I'm including two examples of the early efforts of my youth because they show where I started.

Icons and the art revolution of the early 20th Century have some common elements. Both use a flattened, two-dimensional space; both use formalized, abstract construction; and both emphasize a metaphysical world.

When Matisse studied the icons of the Hermitage Museum in Russia, he recognized the similarities of the icons to the modern art of his time.  

"In these icons the soul of the artist who painted them opens out like a mystical flower," he said. "And from them we ought to learn how to understand art."

The formal structure of Cavalier is based on triangles and half-circles over the modernist grid. The obvious influence of Picasso is in the profile of the face within a three-quarter face. Cavalier is not an attempt to copy the cubists, but an attempt to understand their ideas about structure, perspective, and color.

In Prince, I eliminated the underlying grid structure of Cavalier to focus on the element of rhythm.

For an article about Picasso, an early influence in my art, please read the ARTICLE.

Kemet is a recent abstract, a collaboration between Pearl Peterson and me. I never met Pearl, but I admired her unfinished artwork when I saw it at her daughter’s pottery studio. When Pearl’s daughter offered me the artwork many years ago, I gladly took it, intending to complete it. Pearl glued cut and torn paper onto a masonite panel and then abandoned it, leaving it unfinished. Since the color of paper is more fugitive than paint, my intention was to improve its permanency by adding paint. I don’t know how Pearl intended to finish the artwork. She was no longer living when I was given her artwork. Kemet is different from the unfinished work of Pearl in its intent, added color, and stronger contrasts between light and dark. However, Pearl’s modernist grid and most of her forms remain as the basic compositional elements of the painting. Perhaps from some metaphysical dimension Pearl is aware of how I finished her work. If so, I hope she approves.

Link HERE to easily order reproductions from Fine Art America, or contact Birdseye Art Studio for more information at nicolaspayne@gmail.com