The Adventure of the Accidental Lunaria
In which I discover a new painting process by happenstance
Isn’t that always the way it is?
You try and try - and then the good stuff happens - in spite of all that!
Last spring, I was rushing to set up the “Featured Artist” window display at the Friday Harbor Atelier, and struggling with how to display one of my large paintings in a smallish window.
I create mostly traditional flat stretched-canvas paintings, but I had painted a few new works on Arches Huile (French for oil) Paper. This wonderful paper allows you to paint with oil paint, without the oil soaking all over. My mentor, Kimberly Trowbridge, who teaches the most amazing atelier at Gage Academy of Art that I had the honor to attend for a year, introduced me to this paper, and I love it.
The only problem is, it comes in big rolls, and is quite stiff - so if you want to mount it, or display it on the wall, you have to flatten the paper, weigh it down, mount it to a panel, or somesuch, so it stays flat. I hadn’t done that, so I had 3 large paintings that kept curling into tubes, as they naturally did when they came in the original paper roll.
The scene of the accident, the Featured Artist window at the Friday Harbor. Atelier on San Juan Island
I didn’t have time to deal with it - lack of forward planning! So I thought - I’ll just display this painting in the window as a … tube! I set the painting on a little table in the window. It stood by itself.
What I didn’t realize, though, is that there was a light above it. Oh, good! It will light my work, I thought. And boy, did it! The light coming down glowed through the paper, and the transparency of the paint, making the painting seem to glow from within!
This was a delightful discovery for me because one major aspect of my work is that I am always thinking about light - and how to portray it in paint, in motion - the qi of light. I focus on the light at one of my favorite places in the world - the beach - South Beach/American Camp in the San Juan Islands National Historical Park, to be precise.
All 3 of these Lunaria are the same piece, just lit with a different color of light - from a handheld remote you can change to any color.
The light leads me
I goto the beach at dawn to see what color the light is. I go at noon for the straight overhead blue-sky light. At sunset, the long light waves are red and pink. At dusk, lavender and blue. I’ve even gone at midnight, with a full moon, and under a pure black sky full of stars.
The light in this amazing place is always different, always shifting. And I try to capture some of that feeling in my paintings.
RIGHT?!?!?
So when this “happy accident” happened - offering me a new way to look at my paintings, I started to explore.
I went to visit my best friend, Amy Mattera and her family in Oregon, I showed them the three paintings I had so far. And for her brother (and my good friend), Paul Brown, a lightbulb lit up in his brain - he ran upstairs to get a light bulb that has a remote that changes colors. We had a great time looking at all the possible lighting options - so fun.
When I came home, I started to experiment with a new roll of Arches paper - painting different colors - trying both opaque and transparent paint, abstract color fields, and more landscape-style compositions, both sides of the paper, and just one.
The Light Behind (detail), oil on paper, 40x40
Smoke at Sunset, oil on paper, 40x40
And then, my friend and fantastic photographer (REALLY - you should visit his studio in Friday Harbor, and his website) offered to help me take some images of these “Lunaria” against a black background. He did such beautiful work!
I call them Lunaria because the light inside shines upward, creating a small moon on the ceiling in the dark. And I go to the beach so often to see the full moon rise - it reminds me of this beautiful natural cycle.
I think one of these paintings would be such a beautiful addition to a living or dining space - an original oil painting, and a lighting feature that changes color and the mood of the room. Plus, it is very simple to set up - just set the paper tube painting over the light bulb, and play with the remote - you could even put it on a timer to shift the light on schedule. I’d love to see that in the right setting.
I would love to talk with you about these paintings - and also, see you at my opening on September 9th at WaterWorks Gallery in Friday Harbor, from four o’clock to seve o’clock there will be an artists reception. Hope to see you there!
If you are interested in any of these pieces - or a commission - please email me at hello@shannonborg.com.
Lunaria, Crepescule, oil on paper, Shannon Borg
I hope to see you at my ART AiSLE opening reception at
WaterWorks Gallery in Friday Harbor
on Friday, September 9th, 2022 from 4:00 - 7:00 p.m.
The Jeweled Shore, oil on canvas, 12 x 36
Thank you!
Email me at hello@shannonborg if you have inquiries or questions!
