Why do I Paint

I paint to celebrate life.  Painting is my way to reach toward understanding my role
in the web of life.  It is often a non-judgemental look at my past and my present life 
situations.  It is always a learning experience.  It gives focus to the journey inward. It
helps me touch inner wisdom and vitality that I have not examined to any degree in
the past.  My internal creed, as a result, is live and nurture each moment for its sake.
That moment won't be back. If I feel like dancing, I dance.  If I feel like painting
I paint especially in response to music.  I have a burning desire to live in harmony
with each day, each night.


What Inspires Me to Paint

First and foremost, is the joy of being alive amid a sumptuous, incredibly beautiful 
landscape. A landscape that changes seasonably, that is filled with nature's diverse
creatures. Waking up to midnight sounds of singing coyotes or screeching owls can
pull me from sleep to respond in paint. I watch in wonder as the moon travels along 
ancient one hundred foot tall evergreens that line my long driveway. Early winter 
dawns are filled with trumpeter swans, soaring hawks, a tiny wren peeking in the
loft window. Occasionally the saucy Stellar Jays crack their stolen hazelnuts on the
windowsill some five feet from my head in the pillow.  Expansive sunsets filled with
swirled cloud patterns, incredible light, and warm colors become part of my perpetual awe at nature's beauty. 
At times, my painting takes its own direction in an emotional response to 
catastrophic events.

Often, I paint from my inner vision. As I paint late at night in my studio it seems that
I sense presences joining me. It is as if others flow out of or into my semi-meditative
state of music and painting rhythms. I almost always have music filling the studio
when I am painting. Sometimes I look at a half finished canvas and there, among my paint strokes, are barely visible figures of bird forms.  They begin to emerge as 
part of the whole, part of the web of life, woven into the developing painted canvas.
For me, painting is an expression of joy in being alive, in this place, at this time.


 


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 Lavone M Newell-ReimMount Vernon, WA360 707 8850

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