Symbolism in Art

 Journey On
18x18, $745.00 Gallery Wrap Canvas, unframed
Available at the Daffodil Gallery

Recently I had a conversation with some friends about how paintings are interpreted. How much of the understanding of a work of art is based on the various elements the artists use to get across their concept and how much of the interpretation is really influenced by the viewers own life experiences?


Sometimes the message is quite obvious and other times it's ambiguous and very much open for interpretation regardless of the artist's intent. My own work has it's own symbology which I hope comes across to some degree yet I rather like knowing the viewer relates to it in their own way too.


Journey On represents the passage of time, where it takes us, where we've been, how we get there and with whom. The moon symbolizes the rhythm of the years, the boat represents life's journeys and was inspired by ancient middle eastern vessels, while the cat and bird, two creatures typically not seen as companions become shipmates in this painting, as they do in much of my work.


As an artist or collector what is your experience with the interpretations of art? Do you get the same meaning from a work of art as the artist intended? I'm interested in your opinions.

Orange Wild Cat Oil Painting

Que Sera
20x12, Oil on Canvas

Another year has passed and with it some very good moments and along with some inevitable sad ones. We can't experience this great big wonderful life without having both, it's what gives life it's richness and depth. This painting is symbolic of our viewing of the past year, as we look back at the past and ahead to the future.

Autumn Inspired Still Life

Indian Summer Songs
18x18
Sold

This painting was inspired during a walk through the forest to feed my chickens. The autumn light was a mellow gold that seemed to guild everything with the same dusty amber colour. I just stood there and smelled the fall air and enjoyed that gorgeous light, the mellow air, and the sound of aspen leaves flickering. It was a sublime moment which inspired a few golden toned paintings. It seemed right to include the cheeky blackbirds that visit our backyard pond in this painting of light and sunflowers. It's interesting that even though I'm not painting from life now light still influences my work.

New Website and New Paintings

You Can't Handle the Truth
30x36
Oil/Canvas
SOLD

Yes, this blog is black! I know some web designers and critics detest black blogs and websites but my work seems to look better on black so when I decided to build a new website I decided to take a chance on black. I wanted my blog to match somewhat so had to make the switch to black here too.

As well as being completely rebuilt my website has a whole new category of paintings which you can see at www.cindyrevell.com, click on oil painting then click on whimsical. My apologies for not providing a direct link to the portfolio but I have yet to figure out how to make the URL specific to a particular page.

After contemplating a completely new look for my website and analyzing a lot of website templates I finally chose Big Black Bag who seemed to have the greatest amount of flexibility with the design and type of packages available. In terms of ease, unless you choose a template and not manipulate it too much it's probably pretty simple but the greater the manipulating of the design the greater the amount of work involved. Nevertheless I like the ability to make more than a simple template change. Big Black Bag’s customer service is fabulous.

I'm continuing with these cat paintings and find it exhilarating to use my imagination and tell a bit of a story, to play with my favorite colors, to explore size, and see how loose I can get. The picture doesn’t seem very loose but in real life they are.

No, I'm not giving up still life but I'm truly enjoying these new paintings and have so many ideas that I just need to let it play out and see what comes of it. I've found that art I've done in the past, like the fast studies, my illustration work, and motifs I explored about 15 years ago have an influence on my work. I can see the still lifes and these new paintings perhaps getting a bit closer to one another. I am loving it.

Looking Back - Exploration in Art

Looking Back, 20x16, Oil on Canvas
© Cindy Revell
$755 unframed

This last year saw years of exploration bear fruit. Experimentation is important to artists and by trying different mediums, styles, new color palettes, or unfamiliar subject matter we make discoveries that lend greater depth to what we are already doing or take us in new directions. I'm not giving up still life but I'm certainly enjoying exploring this new direction and indulging myself in working purely from my imagination and playing with color, pattern, and considering the symbolism of the objects in the paintings.

This first decade of the 21 century was a wonderful journey in my artistic life and what this next decade will bring I don’t really know but I’m certain that it will be no less exciting as the last. I hope this next decade is a rich one in your own artistic travels.

Last Peony of the Season - Oil Painting

Last of July, 6x8, Oil on Canvas
© Cindy Revell
$325 Framed
Sold

I'm back to painting still lifes as I finish up the final painting for an upcoming show this weekend. Last of July was painted at the end of July when my peonies were done blooming and there was this one final, lovely blossom left.

This summer I did 3 peony paintings and kept jars of them near my easel. Their fragrance mingled with the lovely scent of oil paint. The smell of the peonies and my paints, the sight of the dried flowers, bottles, and bowls, all set out as I planned still lifes and left them there to inspire me, windows opened to catch the sounds of birds and a crowing rooster. Delicious.

At those moments I forget about the illustration assignments, commissions, and other projects that are waiting for me and just take it all in, such riches of the senses. Looking at that painting a few months later I remember just how it felt.

Combining Illustration and Oil Painting

It's an interesting back and forth process to switch between illustration and oil painting.They're very different stylistically but they each influence the other. Over the many years of illustration I've explored different ways of getting an idea or story across depending on the requirement for each particular assignment, that builds a bit of a mental storehouse to draw upon for subsequent paintings.

The idea of combining my illustration and oil painting has been lurking in the corners of my mind for a few years but it was a vague idea of exploring themes, patterns, and favourite subject matter in the naive style of my illustration in oils. I made a few stabs at it but it wasn't quite what I wanted, the vision was hovering but just not clear.

One day while doing my early morning writing I could see my vague idea become clearer. I was writing about my recent studies and the things that I was learning from them like painting colour more intuitively and much looser and freer brushwork when suddenly I could see how I could use these expressive ways of painting to combine my illustration style with the oils in a way that would be pure painting pleasure.

What to paint? I kept it simple, choosing motifs that I love like pattern, birds, cats, flowers, and still life. I began exploring different techniques and with each painting things began to fall into place. Where are they going? I'm not sure. I only know that it's the pleasure and exploration that's important for now and the joy of seeing how they change over the years. I would never have done this had it not been for all those years of illustration and then the oil painting, it's all the experimenting and the doing that brought me to these new paintings and it reminds me of the great importance of exploration in art.


Bird with Tulip & Vase, 20 x 16, Oil on Canvas
© Cindy Revell
$775 Unframed, available at the Candler Art Gallery


Thoughts, 20 x 16, Oil on Canvas
© Cindy Revell
$775 Unframed, available at the Candler Art Gallery


Spring Songs, 20 x 16, Oil on Canvas
© Cindy Revell
$775 Unframed, available at the Candler Art Gallery


Russet Spring Songs, 20 x 16, Oil on Canvas
© Cindy Revell
Sold

Peony Study

Illuminated, 5x7, Oil on Canvas
© Cindy Revell
Sold

This little painting was done early one July morning. The sun was hot and burning off the dew, the air smelled fresh and flowery, bees were buzzing happily and so was I. I brought this lovely peony into the studio to paint where it glowed in the light from a west window. Lately I’ve been exploring more complex compositions, sometimes just in drawings for future paintings but so often I come back to simple motifs like this which seem to have so much impact.

This is one of the paintings that will be at the Candler Art Gallery from July 24 to mid August. I’m excited about this show because my still lifes will be hung with several of my new works which I call hybrids since they are a combination of my illustration and my still lifes. This is the first time that the hybrids have been shown publicly.

Barn Cat - Early Oil Painting

Barn Cat, 9 x 12, Oil on Canvas
© 2004 Cindy Revell

This year has been one of much introspection with regards to my art and the hows and whys of life in general. Yesterday I was thinking of serendipity and how the smallest of events can have a huge impact on your life. In 1989 I took a job as a graphic designer/illustrator and stuck around for about 8 years after which I freelanced as an illustrator. Gina, the woman who hired me back then, and I become friends and kept in touch. One day she told me about her oil painting classes and I shared my own first less that stellar attempt at oils which were done to invigorate my illustration by trying a new medium. Gina suggested I try her oil painting class. I did so in May 2002 but I was very busy and stressed with the demands of illustration and a husband with cancer and didn't love the classes right away. They were simply a way for me to learn what was then a rather vexatious medium. I hung in and a year later I was completely hooked and knew that something very special had taken over my life.

So how does the Barn Cat fit in with all of this? When I was working as a designer/illustrator I was sent out on a field trip with some kids to take some pictures for an annual report. I spied this lovely Buddha like cat who was serenely lording it over the chicken coop, I snapped his picture thinking that I'd do a watercolor of him sometime. The photo hung in my office for years and I took it with me when I left, Gina loved that picture. As I was learning the oils it struck me that the time had come to finally paint that cat. At the time it was all I could do to manipulate the paint and the composition suffered from a too literal reliance on the photo. I changed a few things but missed a few critical ones which as an illustrator I should have spotted right off the bat. In spite of it's imperfections Gina fell in love with the painting and became one of my first collectors.

Art had always been a fairly major force in my life and while illustration is still a big part of my days my obsession with oil painting fills nearly every other available moment. How I oil paint has changed hugely but looking back I'm amazed at how it all started.

All because someone needed a graphic designer way back in 1989.

Bean Pot with Pens and Brushes

Bean Pot with Pens and Brushes
6 x 8
Oil/Panel
Sold

With this little painting my goal was to paint as fast as I possibly could. My brush was flying and I found that soft edges came easily by painting fast and with thick paint. Strangely enough the colors and the 'feel' of the painting seemed truer in this speedy painting than some paintings in which I've carefully striven to capture the exact color of the light. Funny how painting fast can really shake things up, in a good way.