As I loaded my paintings into the car this morning, I noticed three of them are not yet signed! One of the paintings will be delivered late, but in time for the reception, because I measured wrong and its frame didn't fit! Ashland Gallery is rushing as I type to bail me out and get another one ready.

But the paintings are safe at the Eastern Shore Art Center in Fairhope, and I am back in the empty studio looking at the wreckage of a hurried last week. Here's a detail of Riviere du Chein, oil on canvas, 36"  x 36". I just added a congregation of birds and a lone figure in a kayak last Friday. They're not the stars of the painting, just a little reward to the close viewer. This one is available as a giclee at Ashland Gallery or on my website: www.susandowningwhite.com

Artist's Statement overdue. Desire to say something profound, to finish the paintings and then see what thread holds them together, stalls me. Experience has taught me to slow way down, clean the palette, sweep the floor when I feel the urge to rush. “Meanders” is the name I've given the work. Related to the course of a waterway in specific, it also betrays my own way of getting things done.

Perhaps there will be twenty one paintings, or maybe one less, if Cristin at the New Orleans gallery sends one off to Santa Barbara. I've been photographing the paintings as a way of getting perspective on surfaces I've been staring at too long. Doing this, I see awkward passages, places where more focus or contrast would be good. I dread seeing Mickey Mouse in a cloud–this also prevents that.

Sometimes I know exactly what I'm after, but other times I do truly meander.

Getting ready for a show feels like running a marathon of sorts--the kind that goes on for a year or more. Dread of starting causes me to tinker too long in Photoshop, dawdle over reference photographs, or maybe take a scalpel and clean dried paint from the caps of little used tubes of paint. I may even resort to plein air painting! This is because I'm still looking for the thread that will lead me to an idea--a hint--of what I want the new paintings to say. Sometimes, however, it's best to just get started: putting down an imprimatura, taping off a horizon, squeezing out some beautiful color. 
Do these things, come to the easel, inspiration will follow.

These last painting, framing and varnishing days of March find me staying 'on task' as the teachers say, by listening to recorded books, podcasts and new music on Spotify as I paint. 

The slight roughness of a new canvas weave has gotten me excited, painting geek that I am. Thank you Conroy Hudlow (http://www.conroyhudlow.com) for that suggestion. One day, I'll paint a series of interior paintings, as you also requested.

Words teased me awake early this morning, with a faint memory of a quotation promising me the door to getting the show's artist statement written. I didn't find the quote, but spent a couple of hours reading yet again, An Altar in the World by Barbara Brown Taylor. Later I take a walk in the woods with my dogs. A meditative, long yoga session tonight after working. Like the paintings, the words too will come. 

The show is scheduled for April 2014 at Eastern Shore Art Center in Fairhope, 401 Oak St, Fairhope, AL 36532. http://www.esartcenter.com/. The First Friday Artwalk is April 4th, and there will be a reception that evening from 6-8 p.m. Everyone is invited!