Lily S. May–Life with Art
When my father died in 2007, I took up oil painting again after not having painted with oils for many years. I made the three paintings in this post to express some of my feelings about his death and my life. Each one includes a self-portrait plus a portrait of him. In the final painting,… Continue reading Portraits on the Theme of My Father’s Death
I'm reading and rereading the books of two great poets, Mahmoud Darwish and Ghassan Zaqtan. These were translated from Arabic into English by Fady Joudah. I mentioned that his translation of Zaqtan's Like a Straw Bird It Follows Me won him and Zaqtan the Griffin Poetry Prize this year. Reading Straw Bird has led me… Continue reading The Excellent Poetry I’m Reading
I've kept a few of my old sketchbooks. Here's an ink drawing I did in '87 that's in one of those books. I made it close to the same time as the paintings and drawings in my last post. A sketchbook can serve as a visual journal. This drawing of my then bedroom brings… Continue reading Open Sketchbook
I came upon these two sketch/paintings I made in 1987. They're in watercolour with ink lines. I enjoyed making and, now, viewing these paintings because I made them with a certain amount of freedom. I didn't sketch the images first, but applied the watercolour and ink directly to the paper. The images turned out less… Continue reading Ink & Watercolour Paintings & My Several Names
This week I received beautiful mail art from Nancy Bell Scott in response to some work I sent her. A lovely surprise. The envelope is from old sheet music and the work inside is one of her wonderful collages. Thank you, Nancy! P.S.: If anyone wants to send me mail art, my address has changed!… Continue reading Mail Art from Nancy
On the theme of garden paintings, here's a fourth oil painting I did several years ago. The setting is part of the same garden I showed in my last post. This time, my husband is quietly taking in the healing of the place.
As you can see, on this blog I like to meander around among the art work I've done. This time I'll return to another oil painting I made. In 2007, after photographing a friend's garden in the countryside, I painted this. It was a challenge for me, because I'd never done anything quite like it. I ended… Continue reading More Garden Paintings
Origami Booklet from Linocut by Lily S. MayThis is another folded booklet I've made in the past month or two from an old linocut. It was an image of a mythological mother nature becoming a tree and was another subtraction print. That is, I made it from one block that I progressively cut away and… Continue reading Folded Linocut Booklet
Arts of May 