Back at it (whatever IT is)

I've just noticed it's been more than five years since I last posted here. Life has intervened as it inevitably does; the world order is undergoing significant changes; both of my parents have now passed away, and I am officially a senior citizen.  After several hours of technical difficulties having to do with a lost identity, in which I was prevented access to my account, and now have to contend with yet another password, I am back at it with plans to pick up where I left off. Well, not exactly where I left off, because much of that was full of a kind of negative anomie,  but, nonetheless, I feel I do have things to say that merit attention and I welcome this opportunity to do so. How other people will find me here, I haven't the faintest notion, because self-promotion is anathema and try as I might, I have been unable to budge the prohibitions of early childhood. 

What is worthy of note is that I have built an entirely new website; a sort of catalogue raisonné without the overburden of complete inclusiveness and nitpicky documentation. So, it is thoroughgoing as far as showing a lot of minor works, juvenilia and speculative efforts alongside the important stuff. As I put this thing together, I lost all comprehension of what was important and what was not. The rule was to include rather than exclude, so the visitor may face a lot of repetition in some areas. To me, the repetition is a signal. An indication of what needs further exploration. This is something a young artist cannot know. It is revealed over the years through the oeuvre. The website is: www.agnesdebethune.com

I welcome your response.

What goes around comes around: 2001-2011

Diana Thater 2001, Knots and Surfaces (photo: Dia Art Foundation)
http://www.diaart.org/press_releases/main/116

Katharina Grosse, 2011, One Floor Up More Highly at Mass MOCA (photo: Agnes de Bethune)
http://www.massmoca.org/event_details.php?id=545 

atharina Grosse, 2011, One Floor Up More Highly at Mass MOCA (photo: Agnes de Bethune)

Diana Thater 2001, Knots and Surfaces (photo: Dia Art Foundation)

Katharina Grosse, 2011, One Floor Up More Highly at Mass MOCA (photo: Mass MOCA)

Diana Thater 2001, Knots and Surfaces (photo: Dia Art Foundation)

Katharina Grosse, 2011, One Floor Up More Highly at Mass MOCA (photo: Agnes de Bethune)

Another Bird

Due to popular demand*, I am doing another (unidentified) African Bird. Got off to a good start last night and continued a bit this afternoon, but now I am looking at several days of day job so this guy will just have to wait. 

Unidentified African Bird #2, (Work in Progress), 

mixed media on paper, approx 36" x 27"

©2011 Agnes de Bethune. All Rights Reserved

*In other words, my brother liked the first one and asked if I could do another; which is what I was planning anyway. I already had this image ready to go, but it's nice to get acknowledgment and suppport.

Unknown African Bird

Unknown African Bird,2011 by Agnes de Bethune, 

mixed media on paper 36" x 33" approx.

©2011 Agnes de Bethune. 

All Rights Reserved

Unknown African Bird, (detail)

©2011 Agnes de Bethune. 

All Rights Reserved

The bird is finished, at long last. It could have been done days ago but for my obsession with the feathers. The more I worked with them, the more I wanted to. But it would have become a whole other drawing if I had kept going. The original idea for this series (on paper, mind you) was to develop imagery I might like to paint in oil on canvas. These are taking on a life of their own and have gone from quick and casual (the zebra) to this. Not necessarily a bad thing.

The Big Baboon

Finished! 

Primate,2011 by Agnes de Bethune, 

mixed media on paper 36" x 33" approx.

©2011 Agnes de Bethune. 

All Rights Reserved

Now for something completely different:

More later...stay tuned.

Next Up...

The buffalo is finished for now:

Buffalo,2011 by Agnes de Bethune, 

mixed media on paper 36" x 33" approx.

©2011 Agnes de Bethune. All Rights Reserved

Next up is the big baboon. Progress shots follow. It's not done yet, but the progession is interesting and I hope this record will help if I decide to paint it in oils.

More to come...

More Dead Animals

The hyena is pretty much done for now. And the buffalo is well underway.

Hyena, 2011 by Agnes de Bethune, 

mixed media on paper 36" x 27" approx.

©2011 Agnes de Bethune. 

All Rights Reserved

Hyena (detail), 2011 by Agnes de Bethune, 

mixed media on paper 36" x 27" approx.

I figure I've got another day on the buffalo, but here are the progress shots:

Buffalo, (in progress) by Agnes de Bethune, 

mixed media on paper 36" x 33" approx.

©2011 Agnes de Bethune. 

All Rights Reserved

Back to Work

It's been eight months since my last post and I am pleased to report that my health has improved enough that I am working again. Still get very, very tired with the result that I can't sustain concentration for the marathon bouts of yore, but it's good to be starting up a new series. These are studies on paper for some imagery I would like eventually to work with in oils. They are based on a visit I made to the African museum in Tervuren, near Brussels, just about one year ago. It's all taxidermy, but that's nothing new. I did a whole bunch of taxidermy back around the turn of the century, and the forms have always fascinated me.

I just started these yesterday and the zebra is pretty much done for now. The hyena is still in progress, but I like where it's all going. More to come. Stay tuned.

Zebra, by Agnes de Bethune, 2011

mixed media on paper, approx 36" x  24"

Hyena, by Agnes de Bethune, in progress

mixed media on paper, approx 36" x  27"

Out of Warranty

It's about time I got back here and posted something. My life has been consumed lately with mundane & grinding details having to do with physical disability. I'll never look at a limping person struggling along the sidewalk or up the subway stairs in quite the same way as before. I don't feel old enough for this, but my left hip has given out and I'd rather not go into the particulars about pain and immobility, but it's been a rather serious comeuppance. So much for yoga and my beloved walks. Looking back, I think this has been years in the making and I have to admit the last few slogs into Chelsea to see the galleries were miserable—and that was last May. Denial only goes so far. All summer I kept hoping it was some injury I could exercise my way out of. But now I've seen the evidence. No second opinion. There is not one shred of cartilage remaining in the joint. Surgery is scheduled for the end of January and life is a limbo in the interim. Mrs. Natural goes Bionic.

You can follow my progress on facebook: 

Mrs. Natural Goes Bionic

New Paintings

At Long Last! I have finally got the website updated with this year's work, in spite of a horrendous week of downtime due to internet provider problems. The site is as yet incomplete; I had intended some verbiage to explain what they're about (a radical departure from what's gone before) but that will have to wait for the nonce. And considering the disparaging words about artist's statements over on Carol Diehl's Artvent (with most of which I wholeheartedly agree, by the way) I find myself rethinking the effort. I also intend to finesse the navigation a little bit, when I get the time. For now though, this is it.

Au revoir

Well, this is it for the season. As of this time tomorrow, I will be up in Rhode Island working on a new series which has nothing to do with flowers. If you need to get hold of me, it's either snailmail, cellphone, or drop in for a visit, as I will be completely off-line.

I will probably make a trip of two back to the city between now and the fall, but other than that it's going to be just me, and the cats, and the garden, and the work.

Hasta la vista!

Lolita & the fishpond

Loli wakes up from a nap

Bebe

Bebe stuck inside during a rainstorm

Garden Gate

The Blue Garden

Plum Tree

what it looks like in the fall

More from the Backyard

These were made the year the starlings invaded our backyard and snapped the heads off all the tulips before they even bloomed. Not sure when that was, but the cats have since solved the problem.

Backyard

These are from the backyard, in varying degrees of abstraction. The middle one has to do with my plum tree (which I have drawn countless times and am now inspired to hunt down amongst all the scribbling). The tree is quite beautiful and in nearly twenty years has given me exactly one plum.