The Year On The Coin

The date on the coin I’m holding is 1981.

So. .  . what was I doing in 1981?

Here’s the game: look at the date on a coin and ask yourself what you were doing that year. Something, or even a list of things, will reach out from your memory. And sometimes you have an idea you were doing something but you aren’t entirely sure it was exactly during the year on the coin. This too may lead you into another adventure.

Try it. Look at the date on a coin and ask yourself what you were doing that year. Your memory is like a diary and random coin dates from a pocket full of change will trigger much more that you might expect. (Personally, I’ve been able to remember things in response to coin dates back to as early as age three. How about you?)

Then there’s the unknown: those dates prior to your time on this earth. What might you have been doing then? Just let the imagination wonder a little and don’t worry as it is all meant to be fun. An alternative might be to ask yourself about sports and politics during those prior years.

One thing I do know is memories generally fascinate us: we try to remember things all the time.

My clients often bring memories to be painted: people and places that mean so much to them. Maybe a date on a coin will trigger something like this for you.

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Jim Pescott is an international contemporary artist who lives and creates in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. To contact Jim directly about his paintings, or about a project you think about, please phone 403-870-0791 or email Jim at paintwithdots@shaw.ca Jim Facebook page is http://facebook.Jimpescottpaintingsindots Visit his website at http://www.jimpescott.com  

Trees With Ideas

Trees with ideas.Trees that express themselves. They test the limits with trunks and branches and leaves: we can only guess at what happens underground. And sunlight becomes a partner as the day proceeds: bouncing light and splashing shadows over the ground.

Trees with ideas share loudly in the quiet of spaces. They love to surprise. And they touch me with teasing.

 

 

 

In A Yellow Wood

Love to experience of a place like this whether during a hike or on a path within my thoughts. Colours, lights and smells rolled up in sensations as I pass through, carefully, not to disturb the essense of things.

People write about experiences like this. I paint them.

American poet, Robert Frost, wrote “two roads diverge in a yellow wood” and somehow touches me as I paint. The spectre and foreshadowing all dwell within the trees as he continues reflecting.

“And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden back.“

Wondering about trees in your world and what transpires for you.

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Jim Pescott is an international contemporary artist who lives and works in Calgary Alberta. To contact Jim directly about his paintings, or a project you think about, please phone 403-870-0591 or email him at paintwithdots@shaw.ca. His website is http://www.jimpescott.com

If You Step On A Crack . . .

Remember the children’s rhyme about sidewalks, “If you step on a crack . . .”?

Recently, I overheard two youngsters share about stepping on shadows to see if the tree would howl. They were walking on a snowy trail under a bright sunny midday sky. Each shadow they approached was a gleeful opportunity to test what they knew must be true.

Did they really hear the tree howl?

This Calgary artist has painted many winter landscapes filled with light and shadows but I’ve never heard the trees howl. But next time I’m out painting in Fish Creek Provincial Park I will listen closely just to be sure.

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Jim Pescott is an international contemporary artist who lives and works in Calgary, Alberta. To contact Jim directly about his paintings, or a project you think about, please phone 403-870-0591 or email him at paintwithdots@shaw.ca His website is http://www.jimpescott.com

Autumn Light

“Light! And lots of it!”

This 12″x 10″ canvas was pretty firm about what needed to happen as the colours of autumn appeared. There’s always a flow of energy in moments like this until I respond to the level desired. “Autumn Light” is the result.

www.jimpescott.com

403-870-0591

“The Backstairs”

At any other time of day I would have walked past this place. But the light of the day, at that moment, placed a flight of wooden stairs on stage and the words “paint me” entered my thoughts. No trees, no sky, no people: just stairs at the back of an old building. “The Backstairs” is a forgotten place.

What do you experience in this painting?

“Autumn Spirit”

Autumn started in earnest today where I live. Leaves changing into new colours as winds bluster them into the air. This canvas was impatient with me as I painted. “Hurry, hurry”, it was saying. And I knew this was because the sun was now melting everything away.