I Read Your Poem
Oil on Canvas 2022
by Ellen Vieth
Paint Paint at Little Pink house Gallery
October 22-23 2022 10am-5pm
Approaching the change in the seasons, the autumn equinox on September 22, 2022 in the northern hemisphere, I find myself on a Sunday morning making another batch of blackberry and orange jam. Possibly my favorite, Pears are ripening on the back porch , and the desire for an apple pie is met with a little disappointment as the apples this year are anything but abundant. The squirrels like myself have been busy, they like the pears to- the welcome mornings cooler than they have been for weeks has me both planning for winter and acknowledging the summer as it passes. This summer was a more relaxing pace for me, a much needed break from show schedules and some unfettered studio time. I finished Ninth Street Women, a beautiful book by Mary Gabriel, that told the history of many of my abstract impressionist heroes. What an amazing time that was was, 50s-70’s - I was a young art student in those later years, and so many of the works of the impressionist masters and the new abstraction was both bewildering and exciting, the nature of poetics and the joyful use of the body incorporated into brushstrokes was everything as a painter… It’s a visceral experience for me, paint itself is a medium that cannot be compared with printmaking, or drawing- it’s its own very special animal.
The hashtag #paintpaint I’ve noticed several times, the first coming from a former student who is painting for her living as I am. Its simplicity rather sums it up… paint and more paint…
Again so fortunate to have a dedicated space to show my work, curate others' work and celebrate this beautiful season. The light is getting lower and the colors are deeper, still missing the rain. One of the continual threads through my work is the connection to landscape and my garden, paintings of both will be available - and the bulk of the work will be mine, While this is the eighth year, my purpose and goals are to share as much with you as possible with new artists and regional and national artists too- this time I am stealing more wall space for myself. Gladly I am helped with beautiful contemporary ceramics from several friends who also are acknowledged on a bigger stage than myself. Marilyn Lysohir - and Jill BIrshbach, and Casey Doyle all have credentials a mile long and I am fortunate to count them as friends. It seems appropriate that they will both have their versions of vessels for drinks and cozy mugs to sit with a favorite cup and take in the new autumn. David Herbolds sculpture as well as new work from Jean Arnold will round out the exhibition. I still make room for the emerging artists, and always surprises both unexpected and charming- I really hope to see you - October 22-23- dates and times are also listed on the LIttle PInk House Gallery fb page, and the webpage has a little more about the history- herstory as it is. Thank you for both your interest and support of this small contemporary space.
#paintpaint Opening October 22-23 Saturday and Sunday, both days 10-5
Ellen Thank you!!
Wild Strawberries at Potlatch Creek
Gouache on Strathmore 2022
by Ellen Vieth
Artist's Statement
Ellen Vieth- Jean Arnold- Conversation
“You can’t be in an unconscious state and paint. Because whatever is in your mind, and not the subject matter, but the feelings that you have related to that subject matter, is what you’re going to paint. So, the beginning is not actually painting, you know. The beginning of painting is not you put down green, and then you like pink, and you put down pink. Painting’s not about that anymore than music is about this sound and that sound. It is really... It’s a whole thing, you know. But it’s something that you can’t resist putting on ... representing. And it’s something that drives you to expression. And it’s irresistible.” — Agnes Martin
Women abstract expressionist painters of late have been having a moment and the attention is well deserved. They were a group unto themselves, aware of the boys club, and as a group they could hold their own. I find their honesty the most refreshing thing of all. From Pat Passlof — “ the brush is the finger of the mind” — to Agnes Martin, who worked in abstraction in a very different way, the goal and the impetus for creative expression came down to understanding the smallest of moments, like a note and following that path of notes to something glorious.
To be an artist, everything you feel and everything you see and everything that your whole life goes through your mind, you know. You have to recognize it and go with it and really feel it. Trust that what you are now seeing is coming from inside.
It helps to be a gardener. It helps to get your hands dirty. And to have a dog. These things are important to me. They serve as a beginning and are helpful in the process of keeping true to your expression, humbling as well to realize your best efforts so often fall short. As someone who has been involved in the arts for many decades, I have just been able to realize without complaint that my focus is often closer to home. What's fascinating in the dialogue that Jean and I have initiated with our work, is that there is more that binds us together in the language of images and non images than there is to separate us. Terrible beauty, which she is witnessing with some of her newer work, sits side by side with the before like —images of my work — and before seems just as fleeting if not more so… I’d like to think that extraction and fires and environmental destruction could in any way provide a moment of not only reflection but a dance with metaphors. It seems easier to do with images that don’t take on the full impact of the ugly beautiful. Jean handles it beautifully. Grateful to have this discussion with all of you.