Lacuna

Sunyata (Emptiness), oil on canvas, 48x48 inches, © 2012 Diane McGregor

Rain Light by W.S. Merwin

All day the stars watch from long ago

my mother said I am going now

when you are alone you will be all right

whether or not you know you will know

look at the old house in the dawn rain

all the flowers are forms of water

the sun reminds them through a white cloud

touches the patchwork spread on the hill

the washed colors of the afterlife

that lived there long before you were born

see how they wake without a question

even though the whole world is burning

My Mother passed away a few months ago. Since then there has been a huge void in my life. Mom had been ill, but not in any immediate danger, so her passing was sudden and shocking. This is my first experience of losing someone so close to me. The concepts of life, death, and afterlife are forward in my mind.

This painting helped me cope. The daily labor of completing each white rectangle, over and over, like a chant to the Infinite, gave me structure and purpose as I waded through the grief and loss. It's my most minimal piece yet.  The underpainting was lively violet, green, brown, and dark gray -- all that is left now is the white, with a hint of violet showing through in the lines that form the grid. Like snow, the purity of white symbolizes the intermediary between the spirit world and the human reality. White is silent and gentle, like snow falling; like arcane knowledge being transmitted through the ether, divine energy flows to us from a higher spiritual plane.

Red Bird

Red Bird, oil on canvas, 18 x 18 inches, © 2011 Diane McGregor

Red Bird

Red bird came all winter
firing up the landscape
as nothing else could.

Of course I love the sparrows,
those dun-colored darlings,
so hungry and so many.

I am a God-fearing feeder of birds.
I know He has many children,
not all of them bold in spirit.

Still, for whatever reason --
perhaps because the winter is so long
and the sky so black-blue,

or perhaps because the heart narrows
as often as it opens --
I am grateful

that red bird comes all winter
firing up the landscape
as nothing else can do.


~ Mary Oliver ~

Lynette Haggard's Artist Interview Series

I was recently featured on Lynette Haggard's Art Blog. Please enjoy reading this interview with me about my work and inspiration. I talk a lot about what led me to becoming a painter, and share some of my working methods and some of the inner processes that motivate me toward creating my work.

Thank you so much, Lynette!

Winter Poems

Clockwise from upper left: Winter Poem I, Winter Poem II, Winter Poem III, Winter Poem IV

All oil on canvas, 12 x 12 inches, © 2011 Diane McGregor

Winter is returning to New Mexico. Very cold mornings, a little snow, the blacks, browns, and golds of the frozen plants and leaves. This quartet of paintings was composed as a poem to the winter season, the winter landscape.

Instead of the vertical orientation of the grid's rectangles, the new paintings I have been working on emphasize the horizontal -- in other words, the horizon line of the vast New Mexico landscape. The blues and whites echo the frozen earth and sky, with flecks of gold, black and brown reminding the viewer of the warmth that still lingers beneath the surface.

I will be shipping these paintings out soon for a group exhibition in December at Costello-Childs Contemporary in Scottsdale. The exhibition will feature smaller works by the gallery's artists. There will be an opening reception on Wednesday, December 7th, from 4 to 8pm.

Upcoming Chicago Exhibition

Terrain, oil on canvas, 32 x 32 inches, © 2011 Diane McGregor

My painting, Terrain, has been chosen for exhibition in "Bare Essentials: Minimalism in the 21st Century." The exhibition will be held at Woman Made Gallery in Chicago, opening November 4th and continuing through December 22nd. There will be an opening reception on November 4th from 6-9 pm. The curator is Ingrid Fassbender, of Fassbender Fine Art. Currently she is working on an additional "Minimal" exhibition which will include international artists.

From the exhibition brochure:

Minimalism is a specific movement identified with
the evolution of post-World War II art. The
movement pioneers – among them Frank Stella
and Carl Andre – felt that “art excludes the
unnecessary”. These artists – including others
such as Sol LeWitt, Dan Flavin, Agnes Martin and
others – were rooted in the reductive aesthetic
aspects of modernism. It was this reductive
element which these artists pursued in their
movement away from the prevalence of Abstract
Expressionism.

“Bare Essentials: Minimalism in the 21st Century”
is an exhibition that will explore how women artists
are influenced by these earlier ideologies, and how
they attempt to make them their own.

I am deeply honored to be included in this extraordinary exhibition!