The Studio & Spirits, Second Detail
DETAIL: “The Studio & Spirits Dream” Oil on Canvas.
I spent the last decade uprooted and on the road. I landed in a barn for awhile on a millionaire’s horse ranch, eventually turning the tack room into a studio that was liveable, enabling me to move out of the ranch’s bunkhouse (12 X 12 foot room with sink) and take up barn residence. It was a wonderful place for 4 years with horse pasture – about 200 occupants – out the door. Goats, sheep, mule named Corizon and Rambo the Ram in stalls and paddock on the other side, the Santa Lucia range all misty , mooned, sunned, gusted, and Milky Wayed before me. And it was the first functional studio I’d had in years. I wrote. And I painted.
This dream, this studio I painted there, is crowded with things I loved and hadn’t seen in ages, stored on the other side of America. Over filled with people I’d loved who’d died. With animals alive and not, who still owned my heart. With a chair from my twenties that no longer existed and the dream of my own bed again where such dreams could populate my nights. The cats who survived the move from Brooklyn then to Virginia’s wilderness then across country are on my bed, and some who departed before we got there, here too. My wonderful chocolate Lab – Rodin – is on alert at the bed’s end. A woodstove I’d seen once that would restore life to this heatless barn (I eventually got a kerosene heater). Some of my many thousands of books I carry with me that prop up my life are here, and all the intimate angels swinging through the undone work, the ready easel, the heart’s workplace.
Greeting Cards, Matted Prints, Laminated Prints, Mounted Prints, Canvas Prints and Framed Prints
whisperingruth
What a warm, welcoming space to express your creativeness . . .
Barbara Sparhawk
Everything I dreamt to have, and very much of what I have now in the house I’ve been in going on my second year.
alistair mcbride
What a wonderful place,a little peek into your mind and memories,brilliant series of work Barbara
Barbara Sparhawk
Alistair, my thanks to you. I recall the experience of painting it, a kind of frantic pleasure to make sure I’d gotten everything in!
blamo
dreams do come true sometimes great work
Barbara Sparhawk
It’s true it’s true it’s true….dreams define.
And thank you for the complement, blamo.
~ Ademac
Sharing such personal details of your life past and present is so special, thanks.
Barbara Sparhawk
Thanks so much, Adrian. Somewhere along the line I decided that intimacy in work was the only way to go if I wanted to avoid repetition and immitation. I don’t always live up to it, but it’s the most rewarding.
Sande Elkins
You’ve brought me to tears once again, Barbara. Your words and your painting are just magical. Thank you for sharing your heart and spirit with us! I love how you relish life and your art shows that.
Robert Mullner
Beautifully written and expressed Barb. I so like to read of the lives behind the artists, particularly great ones such as you….best regards, Rob.
Barbara Sparhawk
Thank you again, Robert. I like it too, knowing who we all are.
funkyfacestudio
Fantastic writing and such beautiful artwork.
Barbara Sparhawk
Thank you for this encouragement, funkyface. I know how I can go on and on, but the time and depicting it meant a great deal to me, a lot of which I rediscovered by posting it here.
Brad Sumner GLP
Just awesome!
Barbara Sparhawk replied
I’m so glad you like this, Brad. What would we do without our dreaming.
Helene Kippert
Wonderful Barbara – love the colours and the air of surrealism here.
Barbara Sparhawk replied
Thanks so much, master of the surreal. I haven’t gone as far afield with paint as your time and space travels, but I feel the mood of it in my life.
Michelle Boyer
Great work
Barbara Sparhawk
Thanks, Michelle. Great to have to visit.
rosepepper
This must be a mighty work in the flesh. No wonder it is good with the spirits of memories past. It would be good to see the work in total. The paint has a rhythm to it and the colours glow with warmth.
Barbara Sparhawk
Thank you so much, rosepepper. It’s one of those paintings one does and then wants to be buried with, so as to never part. A meaningful chapter in my life.
Antanas
great scene, well done
JanG
Terrific series! I love the idea and your rendering of it all. Your writing is outstanding, and I really enjoyed reading your life’s adventures. Thanks for sharing it with us here.
Barbara Sparhawk replied
Many thanks for what you’ve said, JanG. It’s a pretty incredible place here, seems to promote disclosure which has been a total pleasure; friendly atmosphere.
Sharon Perrett
Hello Barbara this is my first visit to your humble abode, I love your writing it is so full of enthusiaum and so interesting and your paintings are magnificent, your studio looks so wonderful and brimming with colour and loved and cherished things. Thank you for sharing your life with us, you sure have crammed it with adventure :))
Barbara Sparhawk
Hi Sharon, and many thanks, my goodness. Crammed with adventure is a good description, and I’m so pleased you like this. I’m accused of being enthusiastic all the time; apparently the girl can’t help it.
Kurt Tutschek
what a crowded but beautiful and surely inspiring place.
Barbara Sparhawk replied
I thank you, Kurt. Great rush of things, yes. I think I couldn’t stop, so much to keep adding.
SNik
chaotic at first sight, it turns into a real pleasure fo r the eye. very impressive work.
Barbara Sparhawk replied
Thank you for what you said, SNik. It bothered me about it, I wasn’t sure about posting it. I painted it for what it meant, to have the whole experience in there. I’m glad it is, after the initial concern with where to look at what, a pleasure to see.