The Haints

Yesterday we purchased treats to give to neighborhood kids on Friday. We usually have fifty to ninety costumed visitors. Few are frightening although I’m sure this year we will have to suffer quite a few of the walking dead. I get joy from handing out the goodies and seeing the kids—and their parents—all dressed in celebration of this pageant that has become as popular with adults as with kids. We have plenty of candy to keep ‘em happy.

I’m reminded of my years in Missouri where among Ozarkians ghosts are sometimes called haints, an archaic spelling and pronunciation of the old word haunts. I like using that word and found it an apt title for some paintings I made of a petroglyph of Osage origin from Mid-Missouri. The figure appears in William Clark’s journal from the Lewis and Clark expedition, an entry made in June of 1804. At one stop they made Clark drew figures from the cliff, large figures he described in spooky terms. 

Acrylic washes on paper by Phillip Hoyle

My “Haint” is a tribute to the Ozarks. The tree-covered hills and valleys did seem a fitting habitat for haints. I wonder if any will ring the doorbell on Friday. Happy Halloween

Denver, 2014

Dancing Delight

Deer Shaman after an Osage Petroglyph
Mixed media on paper by Phillip Hoyle

Jim dropped me off in Colorado Springs at the space where I was going to hang a show. I’d brought over twenty paintings to display and knew I was going to have to work fast and furious to get them hung. I’d been at it for over three hours with one short break and was pleased to have only one piece left to hang. I was very tired and the painting was just a little too large for comfort since the only place left to hang anything was very high, like many steps up a ladder, and a long lean off to the front and left. I wasn’t looking forward to the stretch and hoped I’d be able to get it in place without dropping it or scratching the frame. I was studying the challenge when a woman came in the front door.

“I stopped by to see the art,” she announced.

“So pleased you did. I’m the artist.”

When she introduced herself I realized she had purchased several of my paintings. I had sent her thank you notes. We made a little small talk while she quickly looked over the paintings and asked me about one that most attracted her. We talked a bit more. “It’s different from your others,” she commented. I agreed.

The painting featured a design I had worked with before but had never displayed: a dancing shaman in a headdress. This painting featured a bright red accent in the center and a border of white paint that when it ran elicited a rather esoteric feeling, at least in me.

“I want to take it.”

I called for Marie, the owner, who happily greeted the buyer and rang up the sale.

I wrapped the painting in paper. The customer left pleased. The shop owner was also pleased at the sale. I felt pretty sure the nail had not even cooled from being pounded in the wall just before the sale.

As my customer (and fan?) left I told her I was so pleased because the sale solved what I was going to do with the final painting I needed to hang. We laughed. I thanked her again.

Elk Shaman after a Ute petroglyph
Mixed media by Phillip Hoyle

I was so pleased when I got the show hung and even more when a couple of months later Marie called me to tell me she'd sold three more of my paintings--two to the same customer and one to a young friend of hers. They were quite happy, as was Marie, as was I.

In the past month I have been working again with the white borders and just finished a set of six paintings. They’re not yet framed, but I suspect within a few months they’ll be displayed at Colorado Mountain Art Gallery in Georgetown. Hope you’ll stop by!

Denver, 2014

It Didn't Work

This is not the figure I was working with this week but it is from a site in
mid-Missouri not far from where the one I was working on originated.
These two and several other designs were recorded in the Lewis and Clark
Journals from their 1804 trip across the northern plains and mountains
to find a way to the west coast. I imagine this piece pictured here as a
dancing shaman with deer antlers.

Our art projects don't always follow the plans we make. 

Sometimes I feel like they never do quite work in the way I had envisioned. The materials don't seem to cooperate, or I can't find the correct image, or I don't get it placed on the ground properly (meaning to my satisfaction). Life is that way; so is my artwork.

I set out this past week to complete a couple of collages I had in mind and had been collecting the items I was planning to use. I did some research on some images I intended to paint in the mixed media pieces. I prepared the boards I was using as the ground. The projects continued even though I had many, too many, interruptions with family matters, birthdays, dinners out, visitors in, and just too many social opportunities to which I felt obligated. Life's that way too. 

Anyway I will write about that process and include pictures of the finished works next Monday morning. Wish me well.