what is painting?

i suppose it all comes down to how one defines it. it's much more than merely applying paint to a surface. much, much more. if it weren't, it'd be no different than re-painting your bathroom walls or your car or any old thing. there's something else, something more, something hard to pin down and hold still about painting that really doesn't have much to do with paint.

but whatever it is, it's something i try to do every single day.

i swayed back and forth between two big oil paintings for the better part of the day, played with my inks for a bit, read a few poems out of Sharon Olds' 'the gold cell', wrote and researched and wrote some more and then made this-


mama (7)
11" x 7.5"
water-soluble graphite and gouache on paper
angela simione, 2009


number 7 in this series. rolling along pleasantly. :) these little paintings make me happy and fill me up with hope. they feel like day-dreams to me... little gems.

ahhhhh...

another wonderful weekend. crochet, poetry, and chardonnay. :) and splashing around in my lovely black gouache-



mama (3)


mama (4)


mama (5)

all works:
11" x 7.5"
water-soluble graphite and gouache on paper
angela simione, 2009

memory...

there's a preciousness and a longing... an intimacy and a gentleness and a strange nostalgia... because i don't long to see the days of the apron return, not at all. but there's a call in these little drawings... a child's call... when we were little and we all thought our mamas were angels. there's a sad calm that pours out, a tiredness... but also something simple and beautiful...



mama
6" x 6"
water-soluble graphite and acrylic on raw canvas
angela simione, 2009

i'm partial to the drawings on paper but this experiment of drawing on unprimed canvas turned out quite sweetly. i think i'll keep playing with this approach and see where it takes me.