New Collection: Breathing Room

I still have to close out the Secret Atlas collection, but today I really (really, really) wanted to sit down and build off of the piece I made recently with soft, translucent greens and browns.

I finished that piece today, and spent some time thinking about the direction I want to keep moving in.

Breathing Room

Breathing Room will be a series of mixed media paintings that explore landscape as emotional refuge. Each piece will be less a depiction of land, sky, or water, and more a place to rest — an offering of space, breath, and calm.

1. Memory of Her

This first one is 8″x8″ on Khadi handcrafted paper, and it’s called Memory of Her.

It began with a color I’ve loved for years — celadon — and a recent obsession with a bottle of Bombay India ink labeled simply “green.”

That sky? Celadon. The burst of mineral green at the bottom? That’s the green India ink.

Celadon always takes me back to a bowl my grandmother bought me at a flea market in rural Kentucky. She ran her own flea market booths for many years and knew all the places to find a good bargain.

I remember her pulling me away from the vendor’s table the day I saw the bowl, telling me not to look so excited because she wanted to get a better price. But it was too late — the vendor had seen my clear delight, and my grandmother ended up paying full price. But we both walked away smiling.

My celadon mixing bowl still makes me smile.

This painting isn’t a depiction of that moment, but the color carries the pleasure and the feeling of something held and remembered with joy.

It’s a landscape, but also an emotion. That’s what I want to do with this collection.

2. May You Rest Here

The next one is also 8″x8″ on handcrafted Khadi paper — I’m not ready to change papers yet.

May You Rest Here is layers of rose, umber, and soft turquoise, which create an atmospheric landscape of quiet transition and stillness. The painting functions as a place of pause — an invitation to rest and breathe.

3. Held In Light

I felt confident enough after making the first two that I was ready to try one more, with a size shift and the addition of my favorite gold acrylic paint.

Held in Light is 6″x8″, built in layered washes of robin’s egg blue sky, umber land, and water that shifts between gold and green.

I wanted the surface to hold the soft transitions and quiet luminosity; the paper itself is delicate and yielding, but more than a few washes will overwork it, so I have to keep a light hand.

The gold definitely captures the feeling I wanted, as if the light is lifting off the paper rather than resting on it.

Also, you can see that wonderful mineral green (my Bombay India ink) under the gold. I’m going to have to order more!

Overall I’m very pleased with how and where the day went. For (very impatient) me, allowing washes to dry, then successfully going back in with a delicate hand and additional color, was a quiet victory.

I’m excited to see where this collection will lead me.

And it’s because of the support I get on Patreon that I can buy MOAR Bombay India ink in green, plus paper, brushes, and everything else. If you’re willing to support me there, I would be deeply grateful! You can choose any amount, for any length of time.

P.S. Still planning to finish doing titles, photos, and write ups on Secret Atlas! Will keep you posted.