Standing Ajar

Glimmers melt softly into the darkness: each morning holds breathless possibilities.

Then a slight stain appears as a drop of red in a barrel of water would be.

A visual whisper.

From this, sunrise fuels the day with reflections on the possibilities of our heart.

Emily Dickinson may have been sensing a sunrise when she wrote, “The soul should always stand ajar, ready to welcome the ecstatic experience”.

A magnificent sunrise begins slowly. A radiant process defined by nothing seen before and welcomed as an old friend. And we watch as our souls stand ajar amidst the possibilities.
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A landscape painter, considered a pointillism master, Jim creates in Calgary, Alberta. For more, see his facebook page http://www.jimpescott.com/JimPescottPaintingsinDots

Movie From My Window

Sunrise.

The first light touching the earth where I live following the darkness of night. A vivid blessing of illumination. A breathless experience of splendour.

My home is well situated for this: each day a large kitchen window shares a sunrise as I sip on coffee. Open the curtains and through this window, like on a large movie screen, an amazing episode presents light, energies and colours as only Nature creates. Visual ecstacy with, or without, the caffeine.

How to express this artistically is my current wonder. Large canvas, small canvas, does it really matter?

And as the canvas tells me what it wants, will Nature allow access to the precious colours as I mix the paints.

Energies are the catalyst: thank-you Nature for this wisdom. Yes, the energies of each sunrise touch my heart deeply.

So I will paint the sunrise in many ways: many versions. Wild expressions of energy. Vibrant abstractions of heavenly colours. Delicate calm spiritual moments. All meditations.

The journey begins.
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A landscape painter, considered a pointillism master, Jim creates in Calgary, Alberta. For more, see his facebook page http://www.jimpescott.com/JimPescottPaintingsinDots

Busy Energy

A busy street?

Do you feel “busy” in this scene? Well, maybe not so much as the space seems rather tranquil by urban standards: a solitary taxi is waiting for a traffic signal to change. Bicyclists are waiting too. It is a Sunday morning perhaps with an opportunity to read a newspaper with a coffee in a cafe around the corner.

In suggesting “busy”  my reference is more about energies to explore. It isn’t simply crossing the street as a taxi waits: I watch how the street moves toward me as the buildings endure what has transpired for decades. I touch the trees to connect with life that compels growth from the concrete. I wonder what the windows have seen.  There are very busy energies here and the canvas will want a story told. I sense what this will be but I’m open and will listen with my heart.

We are each different in how we see and how we connect with things. Another artist will approach this location in a different way. It is so cool how this happens.

To be the artist of this scene, what would your focus be?

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Jim Pescott is a contemporary artist who lives and creates in Calgary, Alberta, Canada: his work exhibits internationally.

Let’s meet up with Jim on Facebook 

Painting On The Fly

I’m now home from about six weeks of travel. The journey took me to Toronto, Ontario, Vancouver, British Columbia, Ferrara, Italy, and a wonderful ten days in Arkansas. Most of the journey involved exhibitions with my paintings but I painted lots while travelling as well.

Painting on the fly makes for some fun logistics. Finding art supplies is often an adventure. And managing canvases on a journey back to my studio is a primary need. Painting like this also means working in varying climatic conditions: the impact of humidity on the impact on drying time of water based paint is interesting.

Being in new locations brings insights and experiences that inevitably transcribe to the canvas. Sunlight, and shadows, vary so much from place to place. And the trees are different: where I live the trees are mostly poplars and their variations. In Arkansas I never saw an aspen. And what would Italy be without the cypress. Here’s an interesting link to images of many, many trees of the world to share just a little of what exists when one travels.

While I paint lots of trees, there are often other subjects within the theme. So reflect on how buildings differ in places like Toronto, Vancouver, Italy and Arkansas. In Italy I was especially drawn to people.

To paint when I travel means I may not see two dozen tourist highlights over seven days: it does mean I’ve engaged the places I’ve seen in very intimate ways.

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Jim Pescott is an international contemporary artist who lives and creates in Calgary, Alberta. His studio-gallery is available to view by appointment: please call 403-870-0591 or email paintwithdots@shaw.ca. Jim’s website is http://www.jimpescott.com

 

Windows In The Trees

Looking through trees it seems there are windows allowing me a view. And there are tiny eyes looking out from the trees as though windows allow them a view as well. On both sides, we simply watch.

Is a big part of life about watching through windows?

We “people watch” as though people are on the other side of the glass: perhaps they too watch us. And please don’t tell me you resist the opportunity, at dusk while walking in the dusk light of the evening, to look through the windows of homes where the lights are on and the curtains are open. Facebook seems a window place. Weather, too, seems a window moment: we watch the weather from our kitchen window. Television augments the window experience with an entire weather providing a window on meteorology anywhere in the world.

Perhaps the most interesting window of all: when we frame a work of art.

 

Upside Down Buildings

What if all buildings were upside-down? What would we call them?

So let’s do it. Let’s imagine all buildings are in fact upside-down and you just discovered this has happened. How would you feel about this: upset, amused, annoyed, interested, concerned, jazzed?

The choice is yours to accept upside-down buildings or to reject them. If you accept them there may be benefits you didn’t expect. It you reject upside-down buildings you’ve kept the status quo which is fine as rightside-up buildings seem to work pretty well.

Alright, now let’s say that actual buildings are all upside down: this is our “normal”.  And then someone constructs a downside-up building. Will you be upset, amused, annoyed, interested, concerned, jazzed? Will you want to keep the status quo?

Art can be like this.

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Jim Pescott is an international contemporary artist living and creating in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. To contact Jim directly about his paintings, or a project you think about, please phone 403-870-0591 or email Jim at paintwithdots@shaw.ca. Enjoy his Facebook page at http://facebook.com/jimpescottpaintingsindots Jim’s website is http://www.jimpescott.com

 

Step Inside

Step in?

Sure. Of course.

No, not into the studio. This is an invitation to step into the painting. That’s right, to explore from the inside as in a dream whilst colours flow and the image evolves. Then walk away when the painting is done. This is my experience everyday.

The painting now waits for someone else to step in. Someone who stops, looks, feels compelled to explore, and they step inside. Exploration becomes captivating.

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Jim Pescott lives and creates in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He is an international contemporary artist: recently Jim’s work exhibited in the Salon 2011 held by the Societe Nationale des Beaux-art,  in France, at the Carrousel du Louvre, Paris. http://www.jimpescott.com   http://facebook.com/jimpescottpaintingsindots

 

Not Ever Been There

I’ve been somewhere recently but I’ve not ever been there.

You’ve done this, right? Places in your thoughts like a vacation spot you dream about or maybe a new place to live that sounds wonderful. You have an image based on something but it isn’t based you having been there. Where have you been but you’ve not ever been there?

For me, as I work on a canvas, I’m often taken to see a place but I’ve never been there. I paint lots from real sources, real places, but there are options and eventually there is interpretation. It is something like looking at a black and white picture in a book and not knowing what the real colours are or what exisits beyond any edge of the image: with this, creativity awakens.

So I’ve been there but not ever been there. Every new canvas is so exciting.

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Jim Pescott lives and creates in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He is an international contemporary artist: he recently exhibited in the Salon 2011 held by the Societe Nationale des Beaux-art in Paris at the Carrousel du Louvre. http://www.jimpescott.com   http://facebook.com/jimpescottpaintingsindots

Spring River

“Spring River” will be at the Toronto Art Expo.

Toronto Art Expo, is a premier event celebrating the value of fine art in our lives.

With over 200 distinguished Canadian and International artists and galleries from 12 countries, this weekend of art has become a destination for selective art connoisseurs from all over North America and Europe.

Is the Toronto Art Expo your destination? 

 

 

 

Colours For Tree Trunks

 

 

 

 

 

 

Painting often involves pushing into something without fully knowing why. Blind response perhaps.  Thoughts from somewhere, being prone to listening in a given moment and things transpire.

While painting tree trunks, the colour red connected with me. Not any red: a really bright red. I wasn’t sure but I listened and things evolved.

Is there a colour you would paint the tree trunks? I’m interested. There is no right or wrong answer. Something will suggest itself and it is about allowing this to have expression. What colour would you paint the tree trunks if you were painting them?

Would you paint them the colour that reaches out to you? Would you paint them that colour knowing that others would see?

Hoping you will.