Controlled Magic 30" X 30" work on canvas ©2012 Deborah T. Colter

I regularly receive a studio newsletter titled “The Painter’s Keys” from fellow artist Robert Genn in Canada. It is always full of interesting thoughts on the business and pursuit of Art. The newsletter seems to magically arrive when I am searching for some particular answer… this time I thought I would share with you, a quote from the newsletter which jumped off the page at me… 

“Abstract understanding doesn’t mean arbitrary sloshing and messing. Abstract art is controlled visual magic based on laws and methodology. Abstraction generally involves implication, suggestion and mystery rather that obvious description. Like a good poem, a good abstraction attacks your feelings before your understanding. Abstraction within realism adds zest and excitement to otherwise dull subject matter. Abstract understanding takes time and patience.”

-Robert Genn
“Five skills worth learning”
Newsletter dated February 14, 2012

Painting is available.

Idle Reverie 48" x 36" work on canvas ©2011 Deborah T. Colter

Next week my work will be featured at the Cousen Rose Gallery in Oak Bluffs, Martha’s Vineyard, MA. Owner Zita Cousens has exhibited my work since 1997.  We met when I was waiting tables and she and her husband Mike used to come in for dinner on a regular basis. They always came late after Gallery openings and the other wait staff wanted out – I always volunteered to stay. After a time Zita found out I was a painter and asked me to bring in some of my work. From the beginning she believed in me. I was working very much off the beaten path of the other local artists who primarily sell representational work. She has stood behind my artwork through all of its growth and changes without ever questioning where it was headed.

Next Saturday night my work will be up and I will walk into the gallery reception and Zita Cousens will have outdone herself in the modest space she has to present my work. For a few hours we will celebrate the exhibit and win or lose, sales or no sales, I will walk away knowing that the work is a true extension of myself, an accumulation of my own personal expression, represented by a Gallery owner who has always believed in me.

If you are on Martha’s Vineyard at all this summer, please come by and have a look.

Opening on Martha’s Vineyard July 16, 2011

Cousen Rose Gallery
Will feature the works of Deborah T. Colter
71 Circuit Avenue, Oak Bluffs, MA, 02557

Exhibit runs from July 16 – July 23 and work will be on location the entire summer 2011.

Opening Reception Saturday July 16, 2011 7:00-9:00pm
gallery website

On another note, I was very excited to have Mary Grauerholz interview me a few months ago and write a feature piece about my work for the Cape Cod Life ART 2011 special annual edition which has just been published. The magazine is widely availabe on the Cape and Islands and can be viewed online here as well.

Painting is available.

"The Eloquence of Silence" 48" x 48" work on canvas

“The artist is concerned not with a single focal point but with the unfolding of many layers of movement within a fluid language of images.”
-Una Johnson

A motionless movement, the eloquence of silence, the unfolding of many layers of movement within a work, a fluid language of images. How clearly these thoughts describe the surface and textures I constantly strive for. It is always a joy to me to stumble upon an artist’s quote that perfectly fits my present tense. I am reworking of some canvases from an earlier time and finding pleasant surprise in their evolution. Art for me is in constant motion and this just feels like the right thing to be bringing new life to these canvases I had once looked at as complete. This process brings fresh spring growth if you will, new life, an unfolding of many layers that push me towards a motionless movement.

Coming up soon Anelle Gandelman Fine Art of Larchmont, New York will be representing my work at the Spring Affordable Art Fair in New York City. The Affordable Art Fair takes place the weekend of May 5 -8, 2011.

I am excited to now be represented by Joyce Robins Gallery. Joyce Robins has been showcasing quality paintings and sculptures for discerning collectors since 1996. Joyce represents a carefully selected a group of living artists whose styles range from representational to abstract, working in a variety of media.

Work is available.

@2011 Deborah T. Colter

'Seize the Day' work on canvas 48" x 60" ©2011 Deborah T. Colter

It seems as though the days are just speeding by – how could it be that I have not written a post in months? Yikes! Faster than a speeding bullet the studio time just disappears. Painting, painting, and more painting – I have been fully immersed in the preparations for a new show that I will be exhibiting at in New York City. The Artist Project New York will make its debut in at Pier 92, March 17-20, 2011, co-located with the 10th Anniversary edition of the Architectural Digest Home Design Show at Pier 94. I am exited to be included as one of the 150 independent artists who are exhibiting works in painting, photography, mixed media and sculpture.

The Artist Project is not the only event on the horizon. I am thrilled to learn that Anelle Gandelman Fine Art of Larchmont, NY will be representing my work at the Spring Affordable Art Fair in New York City, May 5 -8, 2011.

In addition to these two events my  gallery & festival schedule is being finalised and summer exhibitions arranged. Spring is in the air and for the moment creativity is occurring, making every moment timeless… with so much to do in this moment!

"Reconnecting the Dots" 60" x 48" work on canvas

Taking myself back into the studio has been a bit overwhelming. I feel like I have been trying to reconnect the dots! It has been an exciting and busy fall season. My road trips to festivals are over for the moment.  I have been shipping work, delivering work and picking up and rotating work around. I am in the midst of reorganising my studio to best prepare for the long winter ahead. Catching up on neglected chores around the house and garden. Resting. Autumn always seems to bring changes – transition time. After diving back in to the studio this week, the familiar exciting mood is beginning to grow once again. “It’s true to say that the excitement and possibilities are in the working…” I feel the excitement – and the possibilities – I do love this time of year!

“I destroy things every day in the act of working and often recall a picture I had considered finished in order to rework it.”
- Frank Auerbach

“I have never thought of time as being linear. I believe in circular time,
one season following another.”
- Josy Hilkes Britton

Time does seem to move in a circle and the rotation gets faster and faster! Hard to believe we are moving into a new season already but I can feel the change in the air. It has been a busy, fantastic summer and I do hate to see it go, but it is time to refocus. The circle of time is moving…

Timeless Edge 40" x 40" work on canvas

Labor Day has come and gone and I will soon be getting on the road. The first weekend in September brings my fall festival schedule into full swing with five exciting events lined up. The September air brings a renewed energy. I am renewed as well with a sense of excitement for the future. I am delighted to have been chosen to participate in these upcoming shows and to have the chance to exhibit my work and meet and greet interested collectors. Studio time will be limited for a few weeks as I participate in these events. However, the break from the studio routine always brings me back in with new direction…full circle.

I was thrilled to have recently been Friday’s Featured Abstract Artist on Lynne Taetzsch’s Abstract Art blog. Lynne features abstract art, abstract artists, and the daily practice of painting and drawing on her blog each week. Thank you Lynne!

“One of the essential characteristics we must have to be happy and productive artists is the skill to navigate our way through random time; so that even without a clock for a compass, and without a clear destination,
we still know what direction to go.”
-Eleanor Blair

Gallery KH, Chicago 2010

Settling down after the whirlwind of two openings in the past two weeks. I am trying to regroup and replenish and I find that the summer heat is just making things a move a little slower right now. I always find that Art is the river that runs through my life – a constant that grows wider and deeper. Sometimes it rages and sometimes it just sort of slowly drifts along.

The opening at Gallery KH in Chicago coincided with a freak rainstorm that dumped 7 plus inches on the city – creating real rivers in unexpected places! Fortunately most of the rain fell well after the opening.

I was thrilled to see my work hung alongside the work of Charlotte Foust, it is an exciting mix of abstract paintings. I love the surprise of walking into the gallery and seeing the show for the first time!

In 3 weeks I will travel again to participate in the Saratoga Arts Celebration at the National Museum of Dance. I am looking forward to visiting this area. My fall festival schedule begins in September and there is much to prepare for, but for the moment, a little rest is on my list…

Saratoga Arts Celebration
August 21, 2010 10:00 am – 5:00 pm
August 22, 2010 10:00 am – 5:00 pm
at the National Museum of Dance
99 Broadway, Saratoga Springs, NY

“How fortunate we are to make our life’s work centred on experiencing life with depth and creating a soulful response to it.”
-Linda Saccoccio

July is an especially busy month and I look forward to presenting my new paintings. As I write this, nine new paintings are on the way to Chicago  for the July 23rd opening of “Surface Elements”, a two person show at Gallery KH. Next week a number of new works will be delivered to the Cousen Rose Gallery for a feature show opening July 17th. Beginning July 22nd, the Lagerquist Gallery will be featuring a collection of my works.

"Shifting Admiration" 48" x 36" work on canvas

Quite often I think of the view from an airplane window and how the surface below is mapped out by the intervention of the human hand. The roads, the buildings and homes, the congestion in contrast with open spaces and how those elements interact with natural elements and each other. There is somehow always an ordered sense of chaos, a quiet beauty, when the landscape is viewed from above. Borrowing from virtual images of the earth’s surface, I have enjoyed the ability to travel over the landscape at will. My paintings for this new series of work have been influenced by the complexities of pattern, structure of lines and vast open spaces discovered through those virtual travels.

Gallery KH
“Surface Elements” featuring the works of Deborah T. Colter & Charlotte Foust
July 23 – September 7, 2010 Opening Reception: Friday, July 23, 2010 5-8pm

Cousen Rose Gallery
Will feature the works of Deborah T. Colter
July 17 – July 24, 2010 Opening Reception: Saturday July 17, 2010 7-9pm

Lagerquist Gallery
Will feature a collection of works of Deborah T. Colter
Exhibit runs from July 22 – August 6, 2010

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes
but in having new eyes.”
-Marcel Proust

Painting is available from Gallery KH, Chicago, Il.

"Natural Peace" 20" x 20" work on canvas

Adventure, I love that! It’s a blooming adventure all right. Just back from the most recent art festival, one of my favorites, where we endured 90º plus heat and humidity, 4 am garbage collection wake up calls outside the hotel room every morning, and high winds, which put some exhibitors tents at risk. In addition we were warned of pending weather issues approaching on the last day – over half of the artists packed up and left which pretty much put an end to the festival. I took a chance, watching the radar all the time, and the pending rain never did make it to our location. I had my best sales that day! There was a robbery, a doggie carnival, a drunken celebration by fans of a winning team that left filth overnight in some exhibitors booths. It was three blooming days of adventure for sure! Great meals, nice hotel, good sales, lots of sweat, tears and a little blood. All in all a good weekend…

Looking forward to new adventures next weekend when I will be back on the road again. Leaving Friday to participate in the brand new Scarsdale Fine Art Fesitival on Saturday and Sunday. This will be the last of my spring festival show as I am preparing for up coming Gallery events this summer.

“Your most valuable asset can be your willingness to persist longer than anyone else.”
- Brian Tracy

Scarsdale Fine Arts Festival
Scarsdale, New York
June 19, 2010, 10:00 am-6:00 pm
June 20, 2010, 10:00 am-5:00 pm

Visit me in Booth #82

Painting is available.

"Dynamic Voyage" 48" x 48" work on canvas

This morning I had an interesting conversation with my Twitter friend Alison Jardine. While some may think Twitter is a waist of time, I have found it to be a well of inspiration for thought, conversation and information, all with a dash of fun. Anyway, in our limited 140 character tweets Alison asked me, “what’s the prime interaction that will take place in your painting…do you not have an idea of color set or anything, is it purely ‘impulse’ as you get started?” She shared that when she starts a painting, “I have an idea of the ‘reason’ for it, in terms of what I am exploring, it keeps me on track…” While I admire her technique, it is not the approach that I take at all – I show up and conduct the players so to speak. Now, don’t get me wrong, l always have ideas, so many in fact, that I need to control them or they go mad. While yes, I may start off with a specific color set, I almost never end up where I started. My colors change often as my interaction with the painting evolves. It is building and layering process – a give and take of balance and order, chaos and control. On a daily basis I show up and work without thinking how to work, I believe in my instincts, which comes from many, many days of just showing up to work. There are infinite ways that artists approach their work, and there is no right or wrong. What is your way of working…?

“Love what you do. Believe in your instincts. And you’d better be able to pick yourself up and brush yourself off every day. While life is not always fair, it is manageable. It is a matter of attitude and confidence.”
-Mario Andretti

Painting is available.