LETTERS ON LOCATION

“Through the Rabbit Hole” 1-30-06
“Animals” 2-7-06
“Off the Beaten Track” 2-15-06
“Fertile Beauty on Many Fronts” 3-13-06
“West Indies Greetings and Hearts of Palm” 2-11-07

THROUGH THE RABBIT HOLE

Jan 30, 2006

Dear Wonderful Friends,

I feel like I've fallen thru the rabbit hole to Balenbouche. After surreal jet-lag, my body has finally caught up with me. I find myself in one of the most wonderful places in the world: a beautiful, tropical Garden of Eden. A circular palm frond-roofed gazebo—my primitive alfresco art studio—perches next to a water lily pond. There are wandering cows, and fishing egrets (but no regrets! ;). Balenbouche is an old 70 acre estate on St. Lucia run by Uta Lawaetz, a remarkable woman with world-class aesthetic taste. In addition to English and French antiques, her home is full of Asian and Mayan pieces, and original paintings by artists who have painted here. It is like "Out of Africa" meets the Caribbean! Truly multi-cultural, Uta was born in Austria, raised in Germany, taught by Bauhaus-trained professors, and then worked in Japan as an architectural designer. She came here and decided to stay and "save" Balenbouche from ruin—which she has done. She and her two daughters impart a rare sense of loving kindness. Plus, the younger daughter is a gifted chef (the food is awesome). And, it is reasonably priced. As you can see, it is an inspiring place to create art! Upon my arrival last Monday, we drove down the long pitted driveway lined in magenta and purple bougainvillea, where a large honey-colored cow rested in the same shady spot as last year. I don't think she has moved an inch in a year! The next day, a small pick-up truck drove in with a pregnant goat in it. It was fortuitous timing, as the chef daughter has long wanted a goat so she can make fresh goat's cheese. In their one window of opportunity, as their mother wasn’t home, the daughters bought it immediately. Later their mother explained her share of goat misadventures, which were all very expensive. The chef daughter has been warned that she will be financially responsible for any damages incurred by her latest "pet"!

My third day here, as I was breakfasting on the dreamy veranda, a hummingbird encircled my head sticking its beak into my crop of tousled hair trying to figure out where the nectar was. Perhaps a blind hummingbird? I wasn't even wearing my red hat!

I've begun to unwind, exercise and smear paint around. Slowly, slowly, Caribbean-style, I'm beginning to feel like the person I used to know.

Croaking peepers, singing night birds and chirruping crickets have begun their twilight chorus, mixing with Balenbouche's mélange of Cuban, African and French love songs. These rhythms are suddenly broken by a cow braying loudly and orgiastically in the background. Smells of coconut, ginger, garlic and chocolate waft from the kitchen. So, for now, I bid adieu.

With Love,
Imogene

ANIMALS

Feb 7, 2006

Dear ones, Life is good here, and I'm enjoying everything, in what seems like a Caribbean version of "My Family and Other Animals."

For starters, five dogs who set off a howling alarm whenever anyone arrives or departs, including a docile Doberman Pinscher (how's that for an oxymoron?) named “Paco.” A chivalrous fellow, I call him "Senõr Paco." My patient, gentlemanly buddy, he lies at my feet while I type, and accompanies me on beach excursions through fields full of large potholes, cows, and humongous cow patties the size of steering wheels. The other dogs have exotic Asian-sounding names except for one mutt called "Fishy."

These four-legged fans, plus two calico cats gather in the kitchen during dinner preparations, along with wandering hungry humans and other animals. There is a fatter-than-a-football red-speckled tortoise originally named "Isabel." When his correct gender was discovered, he was renamed "Bello." I call him "HelloBello." Sounds like a Ben and Jerry's ice cream flavor, doesn't it?! He eats crimson-colored hibiscus leaves, has the run of the house, and is a favorite with young visitors (except when he does his business on the floor in front of them). Last night as I was turning in, I noticed Bello sliding across the floor leaving a trail of puddles behind him. I hoped that, en route to the bathroom in the middle of the night, I wouldn't trip over him—or step in his puddles!

In true tropical style, windows have no screens or glass. Their wooden shutters (good for privacy and hurricanes) are a poetic sea-foam green like in those in Matisse’s Mediterranean paintings. Hummingbirds dash in and out. They nibble on my bananas on a table near an antique four-poster bed crowned with mosquito netting. The bed is rumored to have been slept in by Josephine!

A 3" spring-green grasshopper is also attracted to my room. S/he looks most decorative on my inky black art portfolio.

An empathic, Zen-like gecko hangs upside down on the wall while watching me do my morning yoga.

The goat remains pregnant. We're waiting for the full moon to see if that has the expected result!

Oh, yes, and Bats!! :) A large one naps in the main room—it wafts in and out like a breeze. Did I mention mosquitoes? Hordes of them! Fortunately, they are dined upon nightly by zee bats swooping in and out of beams of light highlighting bougainvillea, hibiscus and wisteria vining up the covered veranda. The vine-covered veranda houses our al fresco dining room with tables elegantly strewn with fresh flowers daily. It is among the wisteria vines that magpie and grackles flap and complain in the mornings, waiting to steal a bite of bread. Under their beaks, iridescent green hummingbirds buzz.

The interior dining room table is bedecked with a bounteous bowl of fruit and flowers (and often a curious gecko) book-ended by gigantic leaves the size of shipping trunks that make me want to swoon. Being amidst nature’s fecundity such as this makes me a happy camper! :) I hope all's well, warm and cozy with you.

Love,
Imogene

OFF THE BEATEN TRACK

Feb 15, 2006

Dear Ones,

I hope this finds you each well, cozy and warm.

On the occasional windless, sun-filled day (not often this month), I paint under a circular palm-fronded gazebo framed by two small ponds encrusted with magenta and white lotus blossoms and lavender water hyacinths. On other days I paint in a loft-like barn, ancient with character. It’s raised a whole story off the ground on stone pillars and bamboo stilts, complete with a sloping floor, leaky roof, and bats in the pm! In it, I paint, let dry before dark, and then pack all away from bat guano. (Sounds like a recipe, eh?) It’s a commodious space, and more sheltered from rain and wind than the gazebo. Plus it has a HUGE floor upon which I can arrange my paintings into LARGE paintings. Heaven for moi!

The paintings have been described as variously “hot,” and “a tempest of colors breathing, seeking, stretching for life.” I’m painting 8x8’ grid paintings made up of multiple canvases. One series looks like the essence of crashing, pounding sounds of surf and wind, sunlight patterns on sea waves, plus tropical flora and archetypal petroglyphs floating on the surf.

Two weeks ago, I led two British archeologists in search of petroglyphs to a near-by s-shaped ravine through which a milky stream flowed. (Fortunately, this Indiana Jones-like site was absent the flash flood.) Above it, etched on the walls of the rocky ravine by early Amerindians, were several petroglyphs including spiral shapes, and three markings that eerily reminded me of a tiny monkey’s face (symbolizing the beginning of consciousness?). A week after seeing these enigmatic markings, I realized what the black markings in my mostly sea-blue paintings were. I was painting the petroglyphs from the ravine’s rocky cliffs!

Two tiny hummingbirds daily weave a thimble sized nest above my breakfast bower. Soon, I suspect, the nest will cradle some tiny eggs. Wow, eh?!

I hope all is well with each of you.

Sending you warmth and light,

Imogene

FERTILE BEAUTY ON MANY FRONTS

March 13, 2006

Dearest Friends,

I hope this finds you gearing up to greet Spring soon!

Thank you all for your wonderful comments and delightful responses to my last missive. My apologies for not being able to respond individually, but alas, the computer situation Caribbean-style is much different (groan) than in the US.

For the past four weeks, I’ve been mentally composing emails to you, and now, finally, am able to do so!

EXCITING NEWS: I’m having a one-person show in St Lucia! “Fertile Beauty” opened Sunday in the commodious Copra House Gallery. The loft-like second story space with a 360 degree view looking out huge windows gives the sense of being inside a highly aesthetic tree house.

In front of the (floor-to-ceiling) north window, a low black lacquered table is graced by a single orchid plant spouting a cascading stem of white blooms that shimmer in the sunlight. (This is to the right of my “Water Born” painting.) In front of a west (door-sized) window, a three foot tall slice of a tree trunk, looking like it has been cut out and escaped from one of my paintings, indolently soaks in the light as it leans into the door jam like a guy watching a doll!

Placed in front of yet another door-sized window is an assemblage composed from another large tree-trunk slice—this one perched on short legs, with an antique metal sprayer (with a bent arm) topped with a crenellated coconut bowl (like a head) ornamented with small holes through which light strains. Elsewhere, mature palm fronds and a stem of baby coconuts bow from a bamboo vase.

In the middle of this inviting space lounges a day-bed festooned Moroccan-style with multi-colored silk pillows. On a primitive table (from which drinks and appetizers are served), a seriously intriguing metal vase boasts a bouquet of my paint incrusted brushes! What an elegant environment for my exhibit, eh?!

Happily, the paintings look stunning and were well-received! “Water Born,” a large wall-sized grid (8 x 7.5’), looks like the surf from different angles and the sound of the surf—-complete with petroglyph markings.

“Jazz!,” another wall-sized grid (8 x 5’), is mostly yellow and red with black markings that remind me of the wisteria vines winding over the Main House’s graceful alfresco terrace, of tiny tendrils rampantly curling everywhere, plus the large ropey branches twisting from the spreading banyan tree outside the Copra House’s east windows.

Several green and red paintings, “Fertile Beauty,” “Whirled” and “Seminal Light,” are reminiscent of the St Lucian Green Parrot and its rainforest habitat. (Hiking across a mountain spine through rain and mist in search of the elusive Green Parrot was an exhilarating experience. Accompanied by some British friends wearing 16’ banana leaves as umbrellas, we heard the loud squawking and glimpsed red flashes on the wings of 10 parrots flying overhead.) After this hike with its sublime sightings, I was inspired to paint with brilliant reds and greens.

Sunday’s exclusive reception for art collectors, consultants and gallery dealers was exciting and gratifying. British Dr. Duncan Smart described a synergy between the refined and raw aesthetic of the gallery, the juicy dynamism of the paintings, and the visceral nature immediately outside. People remarked about what nature forms they saw in the paintings, and made connections between the paintings and the source of the artwork. One collector said I was translating the energy of the natural world into paint and making it visible. Another said that I have been taking the natural world into my psyche, making it a part of me, and then letting it flow out of me. Wow, eh?!

After seeing connections between the nature shapes outside the windows and those on the paintings inside the gallery, I felt that my brain has been like a digital camera recording infinite minute details and computing them into fractal patterns of shapes, color, light and energy which I later expressed with paint on paper.

BULLETIN on the ‘animal’ front: The tiny Balenbouche hummingbird couple is the proud parents of two teeny tiny baby hummers. So far, I’ve glimpsed only a few slender tips of beaks pointing skyward, as the new parents hammerjack nectar down their throats!

The mother-to-be goat is literally 3’ (or more) wide. She can literally barely move and her hooves are worn down, apparently from the weight she is carrying. Hopefully she will deliver any day. I’ll keep you posted.

This is all SO exciting! I hope you are all well, hale and happy. I miss you all and send you lots of warmth, light and creative urges! Happy Spring soooon, Yea!

Much love,
Imogene

WEST INDIES GREETINGS AND HEARTS OF PALM

Feb 11, 2007

Hello everyone! Greetings from the West Indies!

It is heavenly here. I'm enjoying painting, and the inspiration provided by this beautiful, fecund sanctuary. During the day, I paint, read, and soak in the rays of the sun. The evening is alive with Mother Nature's resonant music. Tiny tree frogs sound like tingling bells, while large frogs make drilling noises like those of a woodpecker. From dusk til dawn, these sounds, along with birds and sonorous insects mix with African drumming, the occasional blows of a conch shell trumpeting fresh fish sold right off a local fisherman’s truck, and the surf crashing onto the reef in the distance. Overarching this serenading chorus, the night sky is awash in the brilliance of a gazillion stars. It is profoundly nurturing here. The people at Balenbouche are warm and wonderful. I feel deeply blessed in this elegant and yet simultaneously simple and harmonious place. Each meal, we dine al fresco under an arbor of wisteria over-arching an entrancing terrace lit, at night, by multi-colored, ornately-designed star paper lanterns.

Last week's specialty of the house was freshly cut 4' hearts of palm (the inside of a young—7’ish year old palm tree) carried into the kitchen by Oliver, the resident gardener. As St Lucia is in the UK commonwealth, many locals have distinguished English names!

I've moved to an outdoor canopy for painting, next to a lotus pond and under a huge mamma mango tree. Being the second pond, it is on a lower level so it feels like a small inner sanctuary. The pond has a tiny deck on it where I sunbathe and do my yoga. The birds come up to check out my paintings when they're drying on the grass.

Today I accompanied friends to the beach at the magic hour. We enjoyed dipping in the rolling waves, and watching the sun’s golden glow illuminate the surf and tall cliffs until it set, casting serenity ashore for the evening.

I hope all is well with each of you, and that you're staying warm and cheery.

Love,
Imogene

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