WISDOM AT THE CROSSROADS, The Podcast.

This week on the podcast we are introduced to a triptych painted in 2006. “BREATHING SPACE” and her three players: “INHALE”, “EXHALE” and “RELAX” inspires us to do just that. As well they are an invitation to consider our home and how art can offer comfort within the discomfort of transition. We learn big art can expand our spaces and our perceptions.

This trio feature a cast of perennial personalities that are a reminder that sometimes the pieces we are meant to have find their way to us, sometimes in unusual or unexpected ways.

The meditation begins at 10:54 in this episode. It is available on the recording only and I hope you will listen in. This one was inspired by a dessert landscape in the middle of a Northern winter. In it we ground ourselves in colour to expand our chakras as we experience the blessing of a magical morning interaction accompanied by curiosity and a new/ old friend. It’s one of my faves.

BREATHING SPACE: INHALE, EXHALE, RELAX”, Acrylic on Canvas, c.25” x 30” each panel”, 2006. By Amanda Onchulenko

Breathing Space Detail. I love the fact that a painting looks like one thing close up and our eyes merge colours and shapes when we take a step, or 7 back, to create a totally different visual.

I have been spending more time at home lately. I am feeling the need to clear some things out and to change things up. It might be the new season bringing with it a need to adjust and refresh the space around me.

I wonder when you are home

What is it that makes you feel at home?

If you were to move, what would travel with you from your current space that would help you to feel comfort within the discomfort of transition?

A good friend and also a client of mine moved recently and I offered to help her settle in by hanging a couple of key pieces of art work. They are iconic images within her home, you know, the pieces have been the backdrop of her adult life. They are paintings that she loves and has lived with for some time so their presence instantly helped to define her new space as her own. Isn’t that our goal?

To curate the things we love within our personal environments to make our house a home and a space we can be at ease? To create a space that is our sanctuary, a place where we can take a pause and one we can call our own.

Today on the podcast I’d like to introduce you to a painting, rather a series of paintings. The triptych is called “Breathing Space, The components are: “Inhale, Exhale and Relax” respectively

The aptly named “Breathing Space” both grounds and defines our living space at the lake.

The story of how it came to reside there is a bit of a convoluted one that involves 2 galleries, a couple of flights and a considerable passage of time. This piece has shared many lessons with me.

When it was painted in 2006 our family had neither cottage nor even any plans to invest in one, but in life as in art, there is always room for an evolving journey. Change really is our only constant.

At the time I painted this trio I must have been on some kind of a mission to be self-sufficient and frugal in my little business because somehow I decided it would be a good idea for me personally to build my own stretcher frames???

In art school I had the most impressive canvas stretchers. They were handmade by my master builder father who sought the strongest and lightest timber, mitered the corners perfectly and added cross bracing for added strength and support. As a bonus I have always enjoyed process so the process of stretching the raw canvas was appealing.

I may have inherited my dad’s analytical mind but really I don’t know what I was thinking when I decided building my own stretchers was to be my next DIY project.

It’s not like I had studio time to spare. Maybe the art supply chain was suffering some shortages at the time or maybe I had one too many canvases warp after painting? I can’t quite remember my motivation at the time.

I had possibly spent too much time distracting myself in the aisles of the hardware store where my young kids could be entertained in the cart while we measured and imagined on one of our little creative adventures?

However it happened I determined to build a trio of stretcher panels that I would then attach a panel of plywood to create a painting surface.

Home Depot did not offer mitered cuts so everything was straight edged and hammered not too expertly together Without clamps or a table to appropriately brace and glue the painting surface to the supportive understructure, I took out my handy drill and slammed those panels together in quick time making sure to add a generous splash of wood glue between the bracing and the painting panel for good measure

In another life you might compare and contrast my efforts and my dad’s handiwork as the difference between an orthopedic and a plastic surgeon.

Of course I screwed the panels from the top surface instead of discretely from the bottom so I then had to figure out a way to make this over sight appear intentional. My resourceful plan evolved and I set myself up to disguise the screw heads by burying them in gesso and applying some of my contraband dried gum leaves over the top to add some surface interest. As I painted them my perfectionist self felt uneasy but I persisted. If we are taking away some studio lessons we could begin here with the following gems Know your skill set Ask for help And Invest in materials

There are more lessons I earned from this trio but I don’t want to overwhelm you before we get to know the actual paintings at least a little

“Breathing Space”, is a triptych one of my very good friends declared recently while taking in the trio from across the living room at the cottage, as her absolute favorite of my poppy series. I appreciated her compliment. We go way back and she has seen the colour stories of my work evolve and grow over many chapters.

The poppy has been a perennial favorite of mine from the earliest days of studio practice. They are my bread and butter, the equivalent in my business to the mugs and small bowls of a potters practice.

Anyway, this trio welcomes guests into the main living space and together they help to establish a carefree and casual vibe which is just what our space is about.

My work benefits from being able to be viewed from a distance as well as being able to be explored up close so a large open room is a comfortable spot for them to reside Looking back at these paintings I feel I was just getting into my stride as a painter, developing confidence and feeling free to be myself in my work. The imagery was beginning to flow.

I have been asked in the past why the poppy? Well as a vehicle for colour the poppy is happy to do the compositional heavy lifting. As a shape the poppy, solo or in community offers both diversity and uniformity which I find appealing. I also love their personified personalities that can add another narrative thread for myself and the viewer to pick up on in the experience of the painting. The poppy grows on every continent, has a cultural or symbolic connection to so many. For me they are fragile, and delicate yet they are also strong and resilient.

After Art School I travelled to Europe to experience the art history I had studied. On day one during a roadhouse stop we tumbled out of the tour bus where on the side of the gravel shoulder I gathered a handful of miniature stray poppy blooms. Their playful faces and serious symbolism has stayed with me along with those memories of that enlightening and life changing journey .

The semi abstracted landscape that is “Breathing Space”, combines with a floral foreground that is more suggestive than naturalistic or representational. The composition describes a sense of a breeze across the three panels.

If you are not from the prairies you have got to know that without hills the wind can get up to speed in all seasons pretty quickly here. That breezy sentiment is described by a sense of movement within the composition that leads the viewer into and through the image.

The colour story uses a lot of my favorite colour friends with an emphasis on sun bleached limes and creamy lemons Brushstrokes are confident and mostly made with a square ended brush and unlike some works the horizon line rests in the boundary that defines the upper third of the composition Instinctively I referred to the “Golden Mean” or the simplified versions that is the rule of thirds in my work. I use these compositional devises regularly but not rigidly. Being a little off can sometimes be the feature that enlivens the 2D surface.

Structure is important to me and that might be a good word to add in under lesson 4 The addition of diagonal features, sometimes as simple as a trail of barely there marks flowing in a single direction, will be enough information for the eye to gather and read as part of a visual sentence. The panels flowed together and were finished at about the same time as I received an invitation from a Toronto gallery to join their organization. Messaging was a little vague but I accepted the invitation and packaged up the fresh work. I was definitely excited about the potential collaboration. The gallery loved the imagery but they were concerned about the inclusions in the paintings surface, my resourceful screw head concealing eucalyptus leaves became a liability which resulted in the triptych being returned.

This was disappointing obviously and a reminder to know my skill set and to direct my attention there. Carpentry was not my forte and my frugal choose turner out to be an expensive one

“Breathing Space” Relaxed v view from the couch

Once home, the journey of this trio continued to a local gallery who had sold several recent paintings of mine in the past, though they did tend to favour individual compositions and might have been known to sell the centre panel of a triptych first.

If I had been wearing my business hat more often than my mother, driver, ringette, volleyball, soccer and hockey supporter caps, I might have noticed the lack of movement on this group.

By chance, quite some time later, I learned the trio had been trapped in a storage room and decided the cottage would be a more appropriate caretaker. My records being what they were I was grateful I had inscribed the titles on the back of the stretchers. Rediscovering the Title seemed somehow appropriate; “Breathing Space: Inhale, Exhale, Relax” Could a title be any more perfect for this trio and their new role? The universe may have invited them on a journey down the road less travelled but the final destination was the right one and we love them just where they are, screw heads, gum leaves and all.

Thanks for joining me in the backstory…for tuning in to discover “BREATHING SPACE”. I hope you are finding something of your story within mine in listening in to the podcast, or catching up on the images through this blog.

If my work or words inspire you please consider sharing the podcast with a friend or writing a review. You can listen to the full episode anywhere you get your podcasts.

This week’s meditation begins at 12:44 in the recording.

I will add the new link below when the episode is live but in case you stop by ahead of that you can feel free to google “wisdom at the crossroads podcast” with amanda Onchulenko, Season 1 Episode 11: “BREATHING SPACE”

Leave your questions or comments on the website or find me on instagram @mandartcanada. I would love to hear from you

Until next time, stay well,

all best

Amanda

LISTEN HERE

Apple Trailer - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wisdom-at-the-crossroads-trailer/id1609992256?i=1000551067035