From the fragility of life one expands to the idea of overcoming.  This has different implications and connotations for each individual.  However, a butterfly has survived egg, larvae, caterpillar, cocoon, and now it is in the final life stage as an adult butterfly.  Everyone has struggles and the cocoon can be a dark and lonely place.  It is interesting that while I am in a cocoon–I am painting butterflies.

The butterfly has worked hard through the hardship of fighting out of the cocoon and stretching it’s wings.  It is interesting that compassion is not for us to stretch it’s wings for it (and inadvertently kill it), but for us to let it succeed.  In a way the struggles we face make us stronger.  Do they make us stronger in preparation for the next bigger challenge we face?  Do not take me as implying that we need to ignore our community, neighbors, etc and leave them to their fate!  If the caterpillar crawled away from it’s only food source, then we certainly should put it back where it can feed.

There is beauty and joy in having overcome and survived.

Golden Quiver, 12" by 9", 2011

Butterflies are highly affected by the sun.  On a cloudy day, they will sit in their cage with their wings closed and practically hibernate.  When the sun comes out, they fly around.  The warmth and light invigorate them. View more butterflies in my gallery.

On Sunday, I did a lot of thinking concerning the project I am undertaking in the next few weeks.  I came up with several ideas of paintings and became very excited about one of them.  However, none of the canvases available were big enough to do the idea justice.  I found several very large stretcher bars (and one smaller stretcher bar (yet still larger then my butterfly paintings).  I decided I probably would have a hard time stretching a canvas larger then this smaller stretcher bar, and chose it for my purpose.  Then I just needed a canvas.  This particular quest for a large piece of canvas, and was solved rather easily when my hostess, Demetria, was going to Firenze (Florence) last Monday evening,  gave me a lift and took me to the art store.

Here are the materials:

Here is the stretching of the canvas in action:

Here is the final 31″ x 48″ product ready to embrace the idea (I hope):

In a few of my paintings in patterns in flight:  Passion Letter, Malachite Lustre, Wandering Ochre, and one in-progress work.  I play with this translucent idea of light, experimenting with the difference between the effect of the light on one wing that is in-between the light source and the viewer and the other wing that reflects the light falling on it.  This dichotomy of how the light affects my subject interests me on both a technical and theoretical levels.  Technically, it is interesting to experiment with the craft of creating different textures, subtly and simultaneously with creating a fading affect with the wings.  On the other hand, I see potential in relating with a subject that is perceived more fully as the surface and translucency of the matter is conveyed.  While the light is a separate entity from the wing which is molded by it, light merges with the wing that it shines through.

When looking at stained glass we have this same affect.  On the outside of the building, glass is separate from the light and is seen by the light.  When we are inside the building looking at the colored glass, the light appears as a part of the glass.  However, this changes depending on whether you are inside or outside of the building.  With leaves and butterfly wings, you can have both affects in the same scene.

On a snowy winter afternoon, this January, I painted a small, three-hour work of a woman reclining.

This Friday I will give a presentation about my Patterns in Flight series that is currently on display at Asbury University. Along with me, artist, Joel Klepac, will be talking about his work which is also on display. Current faculty will also talk about their work in the Faculty Exhibit.

Asbury University Artist Talk 2011
Friday, March 4, 5:30pm
McCreless Fine Arts Building, Rm 203
RSVP by March 2 to fmontgomery@asbury.edu

Dinner will be catered and door prizes will be given away. Donations will be accepted from non-students.

For more information about the current show visit the Patterns in Flight at Asbury announcement on my blog or the Patterns in Flight press release on the Asbury University web site.

Send me an email if you are in the area and plan to attend, so I can look out for you.

My alma mater, Asbury University (formerly Asbury College) has asked me to show my butterfly series, Patterns in Flight. The show will be on view from January 15 until March 25. The twelve-piece series is located in the Kenyon Room of the Morrison-Kenyon Student Center.

The hours of the center are:
Mon-Thu. 7:30 a.m. – 12:30 a.m.
Fri. 7:30 a.m. – 1 a.m.
Sat. 10 a.m. – 1 a.m.
Sun. 1:30 p.m. – 12:30 a.m.

I have also been asked to give a presentation about my series to faculty, students and the public on Friday, March 4. The location has yet to be announced. Please contact me for the specific location and time.

Patterns in Flight
January 15 – March 25, 2011
Friday, March 4, 2011 – Series presentation and discussion
Morrison-Kenyon Student Center
Asbury University
1 Macklem Dr.
Wilmore, Kentucky 40390

Patterns in Flight is a twelve-piece oil painting series that provokes thoughts on time, refined beauty, and overcoming struggles. It contains a variety of butterfly species: painted ladies, a blue morpho, malachites, a citris swallowtail, postmans, a variable cracker and a zebra longwing.

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Rachel Steely (James) has always been drawn to natural, organic objects and chooses to portray them with oil on textured surfaces. Often, she presents her subject in “dynamic still life” with a shift of time through movement or growth-decay. Steely is originally from the rust-belt city of Rockford, Illinois. She left the manufacturing town to study fine art at Asbury College and find inspiration among the rolling hills and forests of rural Kentucky. Although consistently representational, she strives to create subtlety layered visual and philosophical metaphors. In 2005, Steely returned to the country’s heartland where she is active in the local art community of Indianapolis, Indiana. Next to oil painting, her greatest passion is helping others appreciate art by teaching private classes. She leads and inspires students of all ages from her studio.