After kicking off 2024 with a (mostly) small painting a day in my annual 31 in 31 practice, I was ready to think BIG. I wanted to spend more time with my paintings working with patterns in layers that needed the ones beneath them to amount to anything.
In January I was the hare– panting, out of breath, racing towards my destination with vigor. But once the month ended, I became the tortoise. Slow. Steady. Trucking along while the world seemed to move by ever more swiftly with ever more urgency. All my doomscrolling from the news to the latest gadget the algorithm figured I really needed all had the same message: “Hurry! The time is now! Don’t wait!”
And even as my phone proselytized me towards hustle, my spirit said go slow. Wait. Let it take the time it takes.
These new paintings are meditations on patience because they are born of it. They asked me to be more patient than I am comfortable with. They said “sit with me” more than they said “finish me.” And they, each one, in its own way, asked me to be content that it had been brought to life at all and not concerned with where it might end up. The process was the reward. Watching paint drip was the gift. Seeing colors merge was the purpose. Peeling a paint-stained stencil from the wet layer underneath and witnessing what emerged felt like it might just be the meaning of life.
Here’s a quick preview of the four I’ve completed and will be on display at our Gallery After Hours party July 6. I have a couple more nearing completion that I hope will also be ready. But I’m willing to wait if they don’t find their way in the next few days.
I will also be hosting award-winning artist Jennifer Kayes whose plein air paintings I have long admired. You can check out her stunning use of color here.
New paintings will be available online first to my VIP members July 8th at 10 am and then on the site the following day.
Your thoughts on this new work would be treasured. I wonder if you see and feel some of the same things I do.
![Oil painting with birds and figure based on emily dickinson poem](https://denisehopkinsfineart.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Untitled-design-63-1024x1024.png)
"Sweetest in the Gale is Heard"
40x16, oil on canvas. $1600.00
Will include a gold floater frame.
This was the one that got all the rest started. It gets its title from Dickinson's pome "Hope is the Thing with Feathers"
![](https://denisehopkinsfineart.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/light-yellow-148x300.jpg)
"From the Roots of all who came Before"
48 x 24 inches, oil on canvas. $2600.00
Will include a gold floater frame.
This is currently the working title for this one but I haven't settled on it yet. Thank you to all who gave suggestions. The painting started with the main figure surrounded by shadowy figures represented those who had come before her, paving the path she walks. As the painting developed, those figures were eventually covered by new layers of paint but I want the title to reflect that they were once there.
![](https://denisehopkinsfineart.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/remember-you-are-dust-smaller-circle.jpg)
"Remember You are Dust and to Dust you Shall Return"
40 x 4 inches. Oil on canvas. $3,200.00 This one is rich with stenciled patterns and drips of paint. I wanted to connect the figure to her surroundings as though she were part and parcel of them.
![](https://denisehopkinsfineart.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/green.jpg)
"All Paths Lead to You"
20 x 16 inches. Oil on canvas. $765.00
Will include a gold floater frame.
I am still processing this one and what I want to say about it.