In the Studio | a june monday afternoon
The scent of oil paint, brushes, lavender and amber candles dance around my art studio. It’s a hot summer day in June, with a lazy sun hanging low in the Arizona sky.
Light pours in gently, the way it does when the late afternoon begins to hum.
A deep breath in…and a long, deep exhale.
A deep breath in…and my shoulders fall as my breath does.
What a beautiful day to paint.
Studio Song of the Day: Miracles by SAULT (on repeat!)
Blue, white, yellow, sienna and green oil paint stain my palette.
I use a mix of Winsor & Newton, Gamblin and Blick oil paints.
After a morning of booking events and figuring out some admin. work, I took the late afternoon to create and play. I love painting in oils and have been working on-and-off on this painting of a Saguaro in bloom (that’s also the name of the piece!). I am currently in the midst of creating and dreaming up a new collection of paintings, I am thinking of making a ‘Desert’ series. I am hoping to make about 5 paintings surrounding the travels of the past month and am even thinking of releasing the collection in an self-organized exhibition sometime in August here in Phoenix.
I began to sink into the magic of the afternoon, dancing and surrounding myself in beauty. My fingers tingled with curiosity at which medium I wanted to play with the most. I like to work with multiple mediums- oil, watercolor, acrylic, graphite, colored pencils, even mosaic glass sometimes! My brain goes everywhere when I want to Emma-out…
“Emma-out: The process in which you cultivate the peak of sweet, blissful creative energy. Music is an important ingredient for such a recipe, as well as candles, incense, dried flowers, paint, movement, and the utter release of any emotions that flow through you. Let the laughter, the cries, and the singing cleanse the palette! Then get ready to create for fun and be playful with every artistic medium you can think of. That is what it means to “Emma-out”. ”
Books and magazines of artists like Georgia O’Keeffe and the last two issues of In Her Studio Magazine are sprawled around the floor to inspire me.
The inspiration for my “Desert” series came from a trip I embarked on recently through New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah with my boyfriend and his band, Galactic Harmony, on their first tour (it was super exciting!). We got to visit so many beautiful places and meet a lot of equally amazing people. The trip was extremely inspiring to me and filled with the illuminating spirits of artists in every place we visited. One of the most memorable places was the Omnihum Gallery in Taos, NM, a visionary art gallery with a warm and bright community.
After his band played a festival called Salamander Fest in Durango, CO, we trekked back to Arizona. On the way back we decided to drive through Monument Valley, UT. It had been a dream of mine to visit Monument Valley for the past two years and I was over the moon that we got to witness such natural beauty!! The roads wind and bend around these massive red and raw sienna rock formations that have been sanded down over thousands of years only to stand alone in the horizon, against the harsh sun and skies of the desert.
Monument Valley, UT.
While we drove through the gorgeous plains and mountains, we stumbled on this rock that, to me, looked like a butterfly emerging from the rock formation. I decided to name it Mariposa Rock and knew it would be a beautiful muse for a painting I could work on that would join the ‘Desert’ series.
Here’s a snippet of my draft sketch for the painting of ‘Mariposa Rock’!
The sunset is beginning to peer in from the curtains, swimming into pink and yellow hues. Candlelight dances around the room and flickers against drawings, paintings, pictures, flowers, and writings all stuck to my walls. I feel so blessed to have this space. A haven of inspiration, calling out to the Muse herself.
Inspiration strikes,
the Muse delights,
in sweet light and victory.
For you are listening
and in that song
she sings to many,
you are the bearer
of such a divine creation.
E.C.
6/17/24
