Painting Large Clouds

Ornamental Clouds, 48 x 48 in, oil on canvas,

I'm committed to painting large.  This painting is 48 x 48 and the subject and my style are quite wonderful at this scale.  Not only do I feel like the luckiest person on earth when I'm working on these paintings in my studio, but I am completely engrossed in both the process and the result.  It's as if every painting I've done over the past two years has been a study for these new works.  There is subtlety and boldness, energy and calm, depth and surface and just a universe for the eye to wander in.  Rilke is all about merging the polarity of existence--and finding a way to express and unify these elements in my paintings has been an underlying intent in my work since embracing his words as a muse for my work.

Abend-Liebe-Lied

 
Dekorative Wolken bestehen ein Abendliebelied; eine Straße verläßt 
evasively. Der neue Mond fängt 

an 
ein neues Kapitel unserer Nächte, jener schwachen Nächte dehnen wir 
heraus aus und die mit diesen schwarzen horizontals sich vermischen. 

Evening Love Song

Ornamental clouds
compose an evening love song;
a road leaves evasively.
The new moon begins

a new chapter of our nights,
of those frail nights
we stretch out and which mingle
with these black horizontals.

Rainer Maria Rilke

A book of paintings and poetry

I just created this small book of paintings and poetry for my upcoming exhibit at Fountainhead Gallery in Seattle titled Reading Rilke: the poetic paintings of Sharon Kingston.  You may view it by clicking the image below. You can purchase through my facebook store.

Here is the press for the exhibit:

Visual artist Sharon Kingston has been contemplating the words of Rainer Maria Rilke for some time now. During April's national poetry month, Seattle's Fountainhead Gallery will present a group of paintings Sharon refers to as the Reading Rilke series.  Inspired by the prose and poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke and the atmosphere of the Pacific Northwest, Sharon's works are a method and means to wrestle with themes such as transformation, impermanence, the unknown and the unsaid through the art forms of poetry and painting.

Poets and painters have long inspired each other.   Sharon marries these art forms by taking as source the ineffable ideas expressed by Rilke in his poetry and employing a method of layering transparent oil paint and creating subtle shifts of color to create depth with a minimalism of form.  It is her hope that these mysterious, undefined and atmospheric images hold the subjective and sensory allure of abstract painting along with the emotional draw of landscape painting and allow the viewer to create their own meaning from the poetry and paintings.  

The Fountainhead Gallery exhibit will be Sharon Kingston's first featured artist exhibit in the Seattle area.  Sharon has exhibited extensively in Bellingham and has been very active in the downtown Bellingham artwalk scene.  Her paintings are currently offering a healing presence at the Healing through Art program at St. Josephs Medical Center.  Reading Rilke: The Poetic Paintings of Sharon Kingston will run April 5 - April 29, 2012 at the Fountainhead Gallery, 625 W McGraw, Seattle.  An artist reception will be held April 7 from 5 to 7 pm.