Flowers XI

In honor of full summer in New England, eastern U.S, here is a display of flowers for you! I hope you are enjoying your summer or winter, depending on where you are. I feel so much lighter with the sun and warmth. I want my artwork to help others feel uplifted like the weather is helping me.

Flowers XI, Digital © Diane Clancy

I had a lot of fun with this creative process of making this digital painting by choosing flowers in pinks and purples and putting them all together. These colors make me happy!

These are really more spring flowers I think. A friend mentioned to me how spring is a lot about “allowing” - allowing the energy of the season to carry one upward, like the flowers pushing up through the dirt to blossom. I am ready for some allowing and blossoming!

Thanks for stopping by and smelling the flowers!

~ Diane Clancy

Nature Reflections I

I’ve always enjoyed the colors blue and yellow together - ever since I was a child. There is some way my eye goes back and forth, back and forth between a bright blue and a bright yellow. Many people have been drawn to this particular digital painting - from my aunt who was over 90 to young children. The birds, representing nature, are part of what I think draws people into this picture. Also, this image is at the border between realism and abstraction - where I think much interesting transformation happens.

Nature Reflections I, Digital © Diane Clancy

I created this image using Studio Artist, a very unusual art program. I started with a beautiful photograph of several birds and then digitally transformed the picture. I think many people are drawn by the fact that they can see birds - but often they keep looking trying to understand what is going on.

As with much of my own creative process, I can never quite reproduce what happens by accident. I do much better when I am aligned with my muse and allow the flow to happen than when I try too hard to “make” things happen. Of course, technical skills are still crucial - but, for me, the greatest reward comes when I feel in the flow. I wish for us all to be able to live in that flow.

- Diane Clancy

Outer Flow XV

Several years ago I had my first exhibit that had room to hang about 40 pieces of my original artwork in a variety of traditional mediums. After hanging all this work, my artist friend said, “I didn’t think all your work would go together - but it does! Your work is all about color. I never realized that until I saw it all at once. I thought the differences in mediums would make it feel fragmented.”

Outer Flow XV, Digital © Diane Clancy

This experience helped me realize that the unifying theme of my artwork is color. I play with color in most of my work. I often create series with similar subject matter and different colors.

It is part of my method to explore variations in form and color - often subtle. This technique particularly interests me. The “Inner Flow” series explores small changes in form. Going from “Inner Flow” to “Outer Flow” delves into transformations of color.

About Outer Flow III, Sue O’Kieffe of Sacred Circles Mandalas said, “this image has a much more celestial feeling to it ” than the “Inner Flow” series. So, I think this name of “Outer Flow” is a winner.

~ Diane Clancy

Outer Flow III

Now this image makes my heart sing! I love the bright bursts of aqua floating through the painting and the purples in the background - or is it deep space? My soul is fed very deeply by this image.

Outer Flow III, Digital © Diane Clancy

A few days ago in the post Beginning Life III I said that I would play with the color in that image to make the colors more in harmony with my inner color sense. This is the result of that play. I feel so much more uplifted when I look at this digital painting. I like the other one, but I love this one!

I am open to another name than “Outer Flow.” In the post Inner Flow III, there is a related image. This morning when I was reaching for a name, I thought of the Inner Flow series. You can find many technical details about creating these paintings in that post.

The Beginning Life series feels like the inside of cells …. The Inner Flow series … I think of them as being inside and on the micro-level. So far, I think this Outer Flow series reminds me more of the universe flowing around - the planets and such - the macro-level.

You begin to see my process of naming my paintings. I plan to make videos in transforming the image from Beginning Life III to Outer Flow III. Perhaps it is interesting that all 3 images mentioned in this post are “III” - a mystical number.

~ Diane Clancy

Animals III

I am sure that all these animals are journeying somewhere important. Clearly, there is a specific place they are going - even though the path is winding … do you know where they are traveling?

Animals III, Digital © Diane Clancy

This is a digital painting that will be very good for licensing. I think these animals are incredibly fun and fanciful. The curves of the animals follow the curves of the paths they are following. Unlike much of my work, the colors are a little muted. Again, these designs would be great cards and wrapping paper.

I am so hopeful that this weekend I can make some progress at getting my work more widely available at Etsy and ArtFlock. I am so excited - I think this is the right timing for me - and hopefully for the market! A new, important step for me.

~ Diane Clancy

Abstract Design X

This design is like a mandala to my mind. I like the sense of water flowing and the flames of fire in the one digital painting. This is part of my wrapping paper design series but I am not sure if it would be good for this purpose. It is very different from much of my work - except I do feel incredible motion in this painting and does evoke an emotional response in me. Actually, now that you mention it, there is also a richness of color that is in harmony with my other artwork.

Abstract Design X, Digital © Diane Clancy

That is what I want to share about in this post tonight … this being different from much of my work. Lately a friend said, “I love the whimsical and poetic quality of your work. A true inspiration!” I am very excited about a fellow artist (or anyone for that matter) seeing my work that way.

I have often spoken of color being the underlying unifying theme of my work. This quote from yesterday is making wonder if a “whimsical and poetic quality” could also be applied to my paintings of all kinds. When I think through my work, perhaps this does cross from my oil paintings to my kitty paintings to my designs.

But I have on my mind tonight … am I too spread out? Some reading today suggests that very important to specialize. To not do work that is different from what one usually does. I need to keep thinking about all this.

~ Diane Clancy