It's not often that I paint Southwestern images, but with Easter right around the corner, it just seemed the right thing to do. This church is one of the highlights of the small town of Taos, New Mexico. It is a favorite site for painters of all ages--its mystique, the way it has moved into modern times while still maintaining its charm and identity.
St. Francis de Assisi Church, Taos, Oil on Gessobord, 5 X 7 inches
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It always amazes me when I create a piece with no foregone conclusion about what it will be or how it will be finalized. This is one of the many which have presented themselves for whatever reason. All I can say: there is something from deep within that wants to find its way into this crazy world with all its dysfunctionality, its wars, its cruelty to other human beings. I continue to want for a world in which human beings are civil to one another even if they don’t agree on political principles. We are all in this together and work together we must.
The Meditators, Monotype enhanced with oils, 6” X 4” (unframed size), 15 1/2” X 12 1/2” (matted and framed size).
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Copyright Charlotte Shroyer 2014
I love begonias. So graceful, so full of life as they bring such joy to the eye and to the summer portale. Each year they spread their beauty as they hang in the gentle breezes. And each fall, as they are taken inside, they slowly lose yellow petals, then ultimately leaves until there is nothing left. And each winter, I wonder: will they return in spring? They appear to be dead knobs which can never spring forth life again, but lo and behold in early spring, I see one tiny leaf, and then another tiny leaf as if to say "Do not give up on me. I will be ready to go back outside to spring into life once again." So to the immortal yellow begonia--enjoy your time in the outdoors."
Flowers of Summer, Oil on Canvas20 X 16" (image size), framed in silver frame, $675 USD
Once again I find myself fascinated with the life of monks in Cistercian abbeys of the Middle Ages. Why this fascination persists I have no idea. A friend, who is also a Benedictine monk, says it is because I have a spiritual part of my being which accepts the existence of the soul. I am not Catholic which is even more surprising, but from the first time I saw a photo of one of the French abbeys and even more when I visited Le Palais des Papes in Avignon, I felt this affinity. I don't paint as many abbeys as I once did, but every so often one just appears on canvas. Even in abstract pieces, I see architecture of this era inserting itself.
"Eavesdrop in the Abbey," Oil on Paper, 6 X 4" (image size), matted and unframed, $60 USD
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