Pink Chair: Sky Blue Pink

Pink Chair: Sky Blue Pink: Sky Blue Pink Sky Blue Pink 36x36 oil on canvas I thought this was the last one. It was to be large (end with a splash!). It was my la...

Sky Blue Pink

Sky Blue Pink

Sky Blue Pink 36x36 oil on canvas

I thought this was the last one. It was to be large (end with a splash!). It was my last frame that I had purchased for the show. And the image was clearly an ending one, with a beautiful break in a cloudy rough dark sky beckoning Mom. The title was to be “Welcome Break” But as usual, Mom had other ideas and she let me know. All went along as normal with the painting. I started with just what I wanted, then got mired in the difficulties as the piece progresses. There’s something called the “chaos theory” that applies to painting and this was no exception. I was trapped in the clouds and they just wouldn’t work. So I took the photo to a black and white on my computer to see the value patterns better. Next to it was a photo I hadn’t noticed before of the same spot. What? The sky is lighter in this one? It glows! And the clouds are reflecting in the water! So I pushed it further and made all the colors brighter and took it back to the studio where I started putting whites on with a big brush and adjusting many grays to be more blue and purple. Then I got to the water, which was thinly painted over an orangish under-painting. I noticed that area looks like an expression Mom used to say “sky blue pink with orange stripes”, a color I could never visualize. As I painted the reflections in, I heard in my head: “sky blue pink with orange stripes” “sky blue pink with orange stripes” over and over until I was done and stepped back. Whoa! The sense of doom and gloom was gone and a sense of joy was apparent. Its like Mom said: Make it pretty, because I am not going anywhere so I want to enjoy it. You still have painting to do. And so I do. I already have 4 paintings in my head. There will be more chapters to this story.

Pink Chair: LAST TWO DAYS to view the pink chair show in Georg...

Pink Chair: LAST TWO DAYS to view the pink chair show in Georg...: The pink chair show is about to leave its exhibit in Georgetown and move to the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer in the Yawkey Center f...

LAST TWO DAYS to view the pink chair show in Georgetown!

The pink chair show is about to leave its exhibit in Georgetown and move to the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer in the Yawkey Center for Outpatient Care. It will stay there for 4 months.


The Committee wrote the following in their notification letter:


“As you know, the mission of Illuminations is to create a visually healing environment, offering enlightenment, inspiration, and encouragement to patients, family members, friends and staff through the visual arts,’’ the gallery review committee wrote to Schulte. “We believe your work reflects that ideal and will bring joy to many men, women, and children whose lives have been touched by cancer.’’

I am very excited about my work being placed in a manner that will help other people who may find it healing.

Pink Chair: "Full Nest"

Pink Chair: "Full Nest": Full Nest Full Nest 11x14 Oil on Linen Panel Right from an early time in the project, I knew I wanted to paint a piece with birds....

"Full Nest"

Full Nest

Full Nest 11x14 Oil on Linen Panel 

Right from an early time in the project, I knew I wanted to paint a piece with birds. I have some of them in the studio that I use when I teach classes; we use them for models. I saw them perched on the back of the pink chair, even taped them up there. I was clear on why: to celebrate Mom’s joy in singing. She was part of singing groups for many years, and would easily burst into song. As we did the dishes each night, we would sing together, all the old ones. I called them “kitchen sink songs”. Or so it was planned.  I started the piece and placed the birds on the chair in front of a tree that was in its autumn splendor out my studio window. But I could not get into it somehow; it just wasn’t right. I also had a nest I bought at a flower show and I kept putting it on the chair, it seemed to be telling me to put in. So I did, but I had to turn the tree to springtime dress, because that’s when eggs are seen!. As the green started to take over, I opened my eyes and saw what I had. Why 5 birds? Why THOSE five birds? Why was the nest so important? Ahh, the awakening. Lynne, Ricky, Paul, Georgie, Joey…I can hear her call us to dinner now. This piece is a celebration of my mother’s family, her five children. Mom loved us and was always ready to drop everything to be with us; no matter if the house needed cleaning. Our doors were always open to welcome our friends and her heart expanded to hold many foster children. The nest is still full because the door is always open. I even know who these birds are though I didn’t paint them deliberately; From the left: Me, Georgie, Joe, Paul and Rick. Rick died at age 27; he is flying away in the upper right. Mom’s children were her song, and the songs were joyful, energetic, mournful, loving, and heart lifting.

I'm in the Boston Globe!

Here's the link    

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/regionals/north/2012/01/08/georgetown-artist-carolyn-schulte-honors-late-mother-remembrance-the-pink-chair-project/zUUD5v2P68YTh75gpplsYI/story.html?s_campaign=8315#share-nav

This is a listing of my show with a great picture of the pink chair on it! Friday is the reception for the new Pink Chair show! You will see all the paintings of the first show in Topsfield with four new ones added! If you are local, I hope you can join us. The art show is at the Scala Art Center, 28 West Main St. Georgetown, MA. Hours are from 11-to 5 from Wednesday to Saturday. The show runs through the 21st but longer if I do not need to take the art to the hospital for that show. I'll let you know when we have a firm close date. The reception is this Friday from 5-7. Live music by Chris Trembley and good times!

Pink Chair: Website Update!

Pink Chair: Website Update!: Happy days! All of thepaintings that are currently on display are now on line . You can see them all together on my website. please visit!...

Website Update!

Happy days! All of thepaintings that are currently on display are now on line . You can see them all together on my website. 

please visit!

http://www.lynneschulte.com/

Pink Chair: New Friend

Pink Chair: New Friend: "New Friend" 11x14 Oil on linen panel We took “Mom” on our trip to Canada stayed with my cousin Bill and his wife Marnie at their home...

New Friend

"New Friend" 11x14 Oil on linen panel

We took “Mom” on our trip to Canada stayed with my cousin Bill and his wife Marnie at their home right near Desert Lake Resort in Canada, a beautiful camping resort that they founded. It was great to have some time to get to know them better. By this time, everyone was just casually speaking of the chair as “Mom” We would say "be careful when you back up so you don’t run over Mom”. On this particular day, we were going on a boat ride through the 1000 Islands and we could not take the chair there. So I chose a spot for Mom high on a hill overlooking a view through the trees around a small lake that connected to Desert Lake. There was another chair already there, a hand made Adirondack chair of strong dark brown boards. As I painted this piece, I became taken with how different the chairs looked, one hand made, one mass produced; one bright pink and one dark brown. I realized I was thinking of them as male and female chairs. Well, how appropriate! Mom would have loved sitting there with a new found handsome man. She was quite a flirt.  My sister told of a doctor, after seeing Mom in her last year, saying incredulously, “she was flirting with me!” My sister said. “Yup. That’s Mom.”

Bill and Marnie

Pink Chair: "Full Nest"

Pink Chair: "Full Nest": Full Nest 11x14 oil on paanel Right from an early time in the project, I knew I wanted to paint a piece with birds. I ...

"Full Nest"

Full Nest 11x14 oil on panel

  

Right from an early time in the project, I knew I wanted to paint a piece with birds. I have some of them in the studio that I use when I teach classes; we use them for models. I saw them perched on the back of the pink chair, even taped them up there. I was clear on why: to celebrate Mom’s joy in singing. She was part of singing groups for many years, and would easily burst into song. As we did the dishes each night, we would sing together, all the old ones. I called them “kitchen sink songs”. Or so it was planned.  I started the piece and placed the birds on the chair in front of a tree that was in its autumn splendor out my studio window. But I could not get into it somehow; it just wasn’t right. I also had a nest I bought at a flower show and I kept putting it on the chair, it seemed to be telling me to put in. So I did, but I had to turn the tree to springtime dress, because that’s when eggs are seen!. As the green started to take over, I opened my eyes and saw what I had. Why 5 birds? Why THOSE five birds? Why was the nest so important? Ahh, the awakening. Lynne, Ricky, Paul, Georgie, Joey…I can hear her call us to dinner now. This piece is a celebration of my mother’s family, her five children. Mom loved us and was always ready to drop everything to be with us; no matter if the house needed cleaning. Our doors were always open to welcome our friends and her heart expanded to hold many foster children. The nest is still full because the door is always open. I even know who these birds are though I didn’t paint them deliberately; From the left: Me, Georgie, Joe, Paul and Rick. Rick died at age 27; he is flying away in the upper right. Mom’s children were her song, and the songs were joyful, energetic, mournful, loving, and heart lifting.

Pink Chair: "Wet Feet"

Pink Chair: "Wet Feet": "Wet Feet" 24x18 Oil on Canvas One of the most powerful pieces in the original exhibition, you can almost feel the water lapping aroun...

"Wet Feet"

"Wet Feet" 24x18 Oil on Canvas

One of the most powerful pieces in the original exhibition, you can almost feel the water lapping around the feet of the pink chair. This painting took a lot of preparation in laying it out. The ratio of water to chair seemed incredibly important to me. I measured canvases until I found the perfectly proportioned one I used. Later, considering cropping it, I found that my care was wise. The piece lost all its power when the water to chair ratio was different.


The painting was done from a photo taken at the end of an awesome boat ride on a pontoon boat at Desert Lake Resort, the kind of dreamy, all the time in the world kind of day. My cousin Bill drove the boat, his wife Marnie made the lunch, and "Mom" held the towels. We looked for loons, picnicked and swam in a cove off the boat. It was a perfect day. The title of the piece came to me out of the blue and for a while I have wondered what it meant. I thought that perhaps it was because both Mom and I have suffered from painful feet, which would have loved having the cool water wash over them. But a gift of understanding came from Barb Bodengraven, a writer, who said that the chairs arms were "open to whatever treasures the incoming tide will bring". Yes. That's it! My mother had experienced the joys of the day with us and took that same openness to all of the events her life would offer. She just jumped right in at every stage of life.