All Categories - Caroline Coolidge Brown

2 Great Instructors, 3 Great Days in The Brandywine Valley

9/8/2021

When my art pal Staci Swider called from South Carolina to say, "let's teach something fun together!" the wheels in my head started spinning. We've both been playing with patterns in our work and we both have connections in Delaware/Pennsylvania. We both love mixed media and we both are fascinated with textiles. And we both laugh a lot when we're together!

Thus was born a RuleBreaker Art Retreat to the beautiful Brandywine Valley. I'm all pumped up to show off my new hometown of Wilmington, DE and to collaborate with two of my new favorite museums.

Pattern, Paint and Paper!

Our workshop begins in the studios and galleries of the Delaware Art Museum. We will get a special curator-led tour of the newly installed Pre-Raphaelite collection, taking inspiration from Arts and Crafts design motifs.

"Mary Magdalene" by British painter Frederick Sandys, c. 1859, at The Delaware Art Museum

Day two inspiration features a unique "behind the scenes" tour of world-famous Winterthur Museum, the former home and collection of Henry Francis du Pont. We will pay special attention to historic wallpaper, porcelain and fabric designs that we will use in making our own relief stamps for collage paper.

An incredible "Tree of Life" bedspread and curtains in the Cecil Bedroom on the 7th floor of Winterthur Museum

Between VIP tours, Staci and I will lead students in mixed media mischief! Studios will be open for working all day so we can make some lucious layered compositions. It's going to be such a creative & wonderful weekend - I hope you will join me, November 5-7 in Wilmington!

More information and registration form HERE.

Sea of Stories

9/2/2021

"Swishy Fish" 2021, monotype and collage, 8" x 10"

I've been ocean obsessed lately. After a stir-crazy covid year, my sweetie and I decided to learn to scuba dive!! I just finished my open water certification in Key Largo but I've been picturing the crazy creatures all year. Pelicans, sanderlings, turtles and every kind of fish! They are all telling stories in my studio these days.

As I was dreaming of tropical reefs, my artist friend Caroline Chen started a series of oil paintings based on Wuthering Heights. Now there's a story for you!

To complete the synchronicity, another studio artist friend shared a book with us that we had never heard of - Salmon Rushdie's Haroun and the Sea of Stories. As we both read through it, this passage caught our creative eyes...

“Different parts of the Ocean contained different sorts of stories, and as all the stories that had ever been told and many that were still in the process of being invented could be found here, the Ocean of the Streams of Story was in fact the biggest library in the universe. And because the stories were held here in fluid form, they retained the ability to change, to become new versions of themselves, to join up with other stories and so become yet other stories; so that unlike a library of books, the Ocean of the Streams of Story was much more than a storeroom of yarns. It was not dead, but alive.”

Thus was born our Sea of Stories exhibit. Come see it!

Sea of Stories is on view September 3-26, 2021 at The Delaware Contemporary.
You are invited to an opening reception on Friday, Sept. 10 from 5-8 pm.
For more information about the exhibit and event, click here.

To view work from the show online, click here. Please email me at [email protected] if you are interested in purchasing work from the exhibit.

The Secret Life of Collage

4/4/2019

My studio has been a flurry of tiny paper scraps lately. I've created a dozen 5"x7" collages of birds for my May exhibit at The Delaware Contemporary (more about that next.) I started on the collage binge while I was travel art-ing in Costa Rica in January. Our wonderful teacher, Jean Cauthen, suggested painting papers to "audition" different color combinations. Another talented artist on the trip, Jane Harrison, shared her beautiful handmade papers and some tips on different glues and tapes to try. She also got me hooked on water-soluble Caran D'Ache Neocolor crayons; they are super pigmented and come in a zillion colors.

When I got back to Delaware, I missed our loud, colorful tropical birds (not to mention that tropical sunshine!) Digging through my collected papers, I found lots of good gelli prints to use; the leafy ones looked especially jungle-y. Then I hit the collage jackpot! A friend had given me her old artwork-a-day calendar from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Every page pictures something wonderful and the paper was just the right weight for collage!

Every time I flip through the calendar pages, I feel like I'm on a special treasure hunt, looking for just the right color to fit into my bird collage. And I LOVE knowing that a few little feathers are thanks to my pal Van Gogh!

So now you are in on the secret. Most of the time I was humming away in my studio and forgot to take photos. Here are a few that made it into the camera. The rest will be an art history mystery!!

Pop over to the Portfolio/Collage page to see all of my feathered friends. And mark your calendar to visit The Delaware Contemporary to see my exhibit Blue Sky Thinking May 3 - 26. I'll have details coming soon!

That's Professor Brown, thank you.

3/15/2019

What a joy it was to return to General Theological Seminary in New York City last weekend. Our family lived there for three years while Kevin completed his Masters of Divinity. From 2004 - 2007 Emily and Margaret attended Public School #11 in our neighborhood, learned to read a map in Central Park and rode the subway with ease. I frequented the Met and MoMA, painted and collaged with old prayerbooks and figured out how to get groceries without a car. We ALL learned a lot - about ourselves, about the Episcopal Church, about living in small oasis in the midst of a big city.

Last fall at a GTS alumni gathering, I showed my visual journals to a friend who now works there. I told her how meaningful and cathartic the process has been for me and we thought it might be a good fit for the GTS Center for Christian Spirituality. I visited and talked to the Deans and TaDa! I became an adjunct professor!!

Visual Journaling as a Spiritual Practice is a one credit course with three required books (Steal Like An Artist by Austin Kleon, Journal Fodder 365 by Eric M. Scott and David R. Modler, and Spirit Taking Form: Making a Spiritual Practice of Making Art by Nancy Azara.) It centers around a 3-day weekend intensive session that involves discussion and mixed media work inspired by specific prompts. Students wrote an essay before our weekend together that responded to this quote by John Updike: What art offers is space, a certain breathing room for the Spirit. They also have new prompts and have to complete a new journal page each week until May.

We discussed the value of using the arts in personal spiritual practice, in conjunction with liturgy, for spiritual direction, or as a congregational activity.

I'm happy to say that I think I converted my first class of Art Evangelists!

Just in...

3/12/2019

...a fresh batch of Lamb of God cards in time for Easter

I've just reordered notecards of my favorite paintings!

The notecards are blank on the inside and printed on a linen finish paper that's easy to write on. I sell these in packs of 8 cards, 2 of each image, for $18. You can order directly HERE.

From now until Mother's Day I can send them to you with free shipping!

Click HERE to order your Lamb of God notecards.

Bird O'Clock

2/12/2019

Morning in Costa Rica begins early.

Bird o'clock early.

Sleeping in our lodge with all the windows open to the tropical breezes, we woke to the birds' dawn chorus each day. First we'd hear a little trill, then a few random chirps. Then the troublemaker bird would start - the one we dubbed my "boyfriend" since he liked to sing I'M HERE! I'M HERE! right outside my window in the dark.

As the sky began to lighten, we would hear the big Montezuma birds who have a strange burbling song. But all bets of sleeping were lost when the parrots flew in to feast on the tree next door. Covered in orange blossoms, that tree became the early morning target of dozens of screeching green parrots. When the parrots were finished, we could hear the quiet zing-zooming of the tiny hummingbirds who snacked on the purple flowers beside the porch.

Hot coffee in one hand, binoculars in the other, we sat on our veranda and tried to name them all. It was magical. And it's all I can think about in my studio these days.

Pura Vida!

2/7/2019

There's a pair of sloths on the Finca Luna Nueva property - super hard to spot! This photo was through the binoculars. They really are that cute.

THIS is how we should all spend the month of January! Waking up to birdsong, drinking fresh-off-the-farm coffee, laughing and painting with friends. I spent a glorious warm week away from the polar vortex at the Finca Luna Nueva eco-lodge near Arenal Volcano in Costa Rica. My travel buddies were twelve amazing artists, many of whom were dear friends from Charlotte, NC.

Hats off to the terrific trio of organizers and teachers who have become Wild Hair Adventures! Pam Goode, Jean Cauthen and Laura McRae Hitchcock led us in creative exercises throughout the week; it was the perfect place to study color!

The activities were as great as the art classes - we hiked the rainforest trails (at night and during the day) with our local guide Roy who could find and name every creature there - we had a tour of the biodynamic farm with the chief farmer who kept quizzing us on the multitude of plants grown for food (yucca, banana, milkfruit, jackfruit, ginger, allspice, cinnamon, vanilla, turmeric, black pepper and CHOCOLATE!) - one night we floated in a gorgeous hot spring fueled by the volcano - we zoomed on a crazy scary zipline over treetops and past waterfalls - we saw SLOTHS! - we took a safari float down the Penãs Blancas river, home to howler monkeys, iguanas and crocodiles (we saw them all!)

Needless to say, we found inspiration everywhere.
I had fun working with collage pieces and with vibrant neocolor crayons.

All I can see myself painting in the next few months are colorful plants and birds!! Stay tuned...

Art is always better with colorful friends!

Be sure to check out the beautiful work that my friends create. Not only are they talented, they share their creativity generously and are quick to encourage, laugh, and break out into spontaneous dance (at the dinner table or in the pool!) Take a class, follow their blogs, find a new travel buddy or best of all, BUY some ART! You'll be glad you did.

Jean Cauthen, oil paintings (in yellow)
Laura McRae Hitchcock, oil paintings (in blue)
Pam Pardue Goode, mosaics (in hot pink)

Have sketchbook, will travel!

1/10/2019

Happy New Year, Friends!

I had an amazing holiday with my family this year - we went to Valparaiso, Chile to pickup my daughter Margaret after a semester studying abroad. After 3 days there, we all flew South - REALLY South - to Patagonia. We took a 4 day cruise through the glaciers and around Cape Horn to land in Argentina. Then we flew back to the cosmopolitan city life of Buenos Aires.

Oh, how I LOVE to travel!!!

As always, I took a sketch kit. You can see it is small and lightweight and fits easily in my shoulder bag. This time I worked with pens and watercolor pencils - no paint tin! The Caran D'Ache Supracolor-Soft pencils are rich in pigment and great dry or used with a water brush. I found them at the Metropolitan Museum in New York, on a recent trip when my handy, dandy paint tin became a globby mess and had to be abandoned in the hotel. I sketch in pen, usually with a continuous line drawing, then add color with the pencils if time allows. The colors can stay dry (in the penguin sketch above) or I can go over it with my water brush to make it look more like a watercolor (in the Graffiti Dog sketch below.)

It seemed weird at first, but there are street dogs everywhere in Valparaiso! They are all quite friendly and become part of the artsy scenery, just like this one napping by our hotel. Even better than the cute dogs were the murals and street art EVERYWHERE! From Valparaiso's beach, straight up into the hills, you see gorgeous and clever paintings on every surface. One neighborhood is called Museo a Cielo Abierto - the Open Air Museum!

These photos show you the essential Valparaiso - blue sky, Pacific ocean, colorful buildings and STEPS, LOTS OF STEPS!

I could go on and on about our trip - but for now, let me share a few journal pages. Like most of my travel journals, these pages are created some on location and some at home, when I have more time and supplies at hand.

I made this sketch with just pen and pencil when we were in Valparaiso; I added watercolor at home.

This is as far as I got at the Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires - a line drawing combining lots of the different monuments and crypts, but only a little color. I think I like it this way!

I glued in my ticket from the history museum where we saw one of the Easter Island Moai statues. Seemed like a good place to add some more goofy Moai heads!

My first page, painted during our 9 hour flight from Atlanta to Santiago.

When we weren't on excursions in Patagonia, we watched the scenery from the lounge on board the Australis ship. Magnificent!

Sailing through Glacier Alley in the Beagle Channel...at the end of the world! Beautiful beyond words.

We got to walk onto an island where THOUSANDS of Magellanic penguins nest every year. I couldn't stop smiling and laughing at these adorable birds!

So CHEERS to you for an excellent 2019! I hope you will find spaces to create and places to explore. You can sketch at the other end of the world, or right in your own window. The most important thing is to look deeply and slowly and notice the beauty in your life. That, and to have fun making art!
Muchas gracias to you all for following me along the art and travel journey. Where to next???

Pattern Play

11/14/2018

The red ink is a monoprint, made with a string. The dark blue was printed with a relief solar plate.

Many of you have heard me talk about how much I love all the different ways of printmaking. Monoprints with plexiglass plates, carved linoleum for relief prints and etching with solar plates - each technique has a unique look and process that I enjoy - which sometimes leaves me feeling a little schizophrenic as I go between all of them. It's like too many choices of delicious ice cream flavors!!

I came across a better term for working with multiple techniques that speaks to where I'm trying to go with my work - hybrid printmaking. I am experimenting with different forms and trying combinations of plates and patterns to create my new "hybrid" prints.

Part of my experimentation has been working with my new lightbox and exposing solar plates. A short exposure can create delicate lines and images for etching, but a longer exposure with a high contrast material can create a high relief plate.

I found these decorative metal screens at the hardware store and used them to make relief plates. Instant texture and pattern!

inking my patterned relief plates

pattern printing around a gingko leaf monoprint

adding pattern to another monoprint

Collecting Fragments

10/8/2018

My family teases me about my odd collection of "found nature" - things like feathers, rocks, snakeskin, butterfly and cicada wings, and most recently a deer antler. Maybe not everyone likes to study dead bumblebees, but who can resist picking up seashells at the beach?

This summer I took home a collection of shells as usual. But I chose fragmented shells that had interesting textures and holes, shells that might look like something other than a shell when examined closely.

I made some more solarplate etchings and began to play with composition and layering. Here you can see my three different versions of this seashell image. The light-sensitive plates are exposed with a photo transparency and when the emulsion is washed out, you are left with a plate etched with the photographic image.

Here's a first run of what I've done with them. I'm starting to feel like the images are not really about seashells, but about something deeper - a reflection of time, age and memory, perhaps. I'm sure this was influenced by the he said/she said news of the last weeks. I was thinking that my memories are stitched together fragments, a blur of what I have done and might have done, with great holes of forgetting as years pass.

I was reminded of an excellent two-part episode of Malcolm Gladwell's podcast, Revisionist History, that explored the science of memory. I highly recommend it to you.
A Polite Word for Liar (Memory Part 1)
Free Brian Williams (Memory Part 2)

The best part about all of this is my renewed creative energy. Working in a big, bright studio has done wonders for me! As John Updike wrote, "What art offers is space, a certain breathing room for the spirit."
Amen to that!

2Q - my new happy place

9/21/2018

I am thrilled to have been accepted as a studio artist at the Delaware Center for Contemporary Arts! On September 1, I moved into studio 2Q, joining a talented community of 20 other artists. Our studios are open to the public during the First Friday Art Loops each month and we exhibit monthly in one of the museum galleries. I am scheduled for May next year!

The Contemporary is a non-collecting museum which presents unique exhibits from regional, national and international artists, along with wonderfully diverse programming events for families, artists, teachers and all kinds of art lovers. It's a vibrant community that I am excited to be a part of.

My studio has big walls, lots of space and a nice skylight. Plenty of room for Elvis, my printing press, and me to get the creative juices cranking again!

Please let me know if you want to pop by 2Q to say hello. I'm still figuring out my regular work hours, but I'll be happy set up a time for a studio visit!

Now back to work...

25 years!

8/30/2018

25 years married to this great guy! We celebrated with a trip to New York and of course, I took my sketchbook with me. One of the highlights of our weekend was the big exhibit at the Met, Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination. According to the catalogue, it is "a dialogue between fashion and medieval art from The Met collection to examine fashion's ongoing engagement with the devotional practices and traditions of Catholicism." Curators have placed runway style models and piped in moody church music throughout the Medieval art collections at the main museum and in the Cloisters.

one of the wonderful contrast moments at the Cloisters (photo from catalogue)

a page from my little sketchbook with some of my favorite themes: fashion inspired by monastic robes, Bishop's regalia and Byzantine church mosaics; I used some washi tape to add the folded gallery guide and the tag from the gorgeous scarf that I took home as a souvenir of the trip

The Heavenly Bodies show is quite a spectacle and worth a visit. Bravo to the Met for doing something different and creative - making us see fashion and art in a new context. If you can't make it to New York, here are links to see the exhibition galleries at the main Met and at the Cloisters. (when you get to the webpage, scroll down to see all the photos.)

Seeing the world, one drawing at a time

6/14/2018

What fun to join the Urban Sketchers of Delaware last Sunday afternoon! They meet once a month to gather and sketch in an interesting location. This was the first time my Sunday church schedule aligned with the designated location - a lovely hidden garden called Gibraltar, right in my own neighborhood.

My first sketch was from the side of the gorgeous waterlily pond. I drew first with a new ink pen that I THOUGHT was full of waterproof ink...not so! As I added my watercolors, the dark ink bled and I ended up doing lots of blotting with a paper towel. No worries, this is "go with the flow" art!

Next I strolled the garden and found this wonderful fountain, peeking through an ornate gate. I decided not to get caught up in the true details of the gate, but to quickly draw suggestive swirls. This time I used the only other pen I could find, a blue fine point sharpie, so no bleeding. I actually like the way the blue lines don't stand out as much as a black pen would, and allow the ink color to take a back seat to the watercolors. We would have worked a little longer, but the rain caught up with us.

Hi Charlotte sketchers! I miss y'all!

Want to hook up with your local Urban Sketchers? Check out this list of chapter groups all over the WORLD! Why?? I went to find other Delaware artists to hang out with and make time for some art. Here are some more reasons why from the Urban Sketchers' mission statement:

We draw on location, indoors or out, capturing what we see from direct observation.
Our drawings tell the story of our surroundings, the places we live and where we travel.
Our drawings are a record of time and place.
We are truthful to the scenes we witness.
We use any kind of media and cherish our individual styles.
We support each other and draw together.
We share our drawings online.

And as the Urban Sketchers motto says, "We see the world on drawing at a time!" What better way to spend a Sunday afternoon??
Now go sketch!

Solarplate Success

5/8/2018

What a great weekend retreat! Three days of learning and creating is good for the soul.

I learned how to create a solar plate by exposing a film positive in a special light box (timing is everything!) I refreshed my memory on how to ink and print an etching (clean the edges of the plate and clean your hands!) I enjoyed the camaraderie of working with and learning from other professional printmakers (how did you do that??)

And I was inspired to take this new technique into my studio and play with new ways of image making and layering. This photo shows a combination print of a large monoprint, layered with my solar plate etching. The solar plates are so thin that you can layer both plates at the same time on the press.

Big thanks to my generous and talented teacher, Rosemary Cooley, and the Academy Art Museum in Easton, Maryland. I look forward to taking another class there!

Here's an etching made from a solarplate that combines my photograph of clouds and my own handwriting. I wrote on the clear film positive with a waxy Stabilo pencil which could be exposed in reverse. The quote is from a poem by Pablo Neruda.

Printmaking is 2 parts planning and 1 part surprise!

My talented new friend John Tochko is a brilliant watercolor sketcher and a sailor. He turned a photocopy of his watercolor painting into a lovely etching.

Here comes the SUN!

5/3/2018

my woodblock print of the sunshine over North Carolina mountains

I'm thrilled to be heading out to the Academy Art Museum in Easton, Maryland on a three-day art retreat this weekend! I'll be learning "Solarplate Intaglio Printing" with artist Rosemary Cooley and staying in a cosy bed & breakfast. Woo Hoo!

According to the Solarplate website, this etching plate is "a light sensitized steel backed polymer material used by artists as an alternative to hazardous printing techniques. It is a simple, safer, and faster approach than traditional etching and relief printing. It does not use grounds, acids or solvents. It is exposed with U.V. light (the sun) and developed with ordinary tap water."

So etching and intaglio printing without the chemicals - what's not to like?

We were asked to bring black and white images on clear transparency sheets which will be used in exposing the plate. I copied some of my photographs and a page of text to try. Then I played with drawing and painting directly onto the transparencies - WOW! I can't wait to see how all of these look as etchings - and to figure out how I can use them as layers in my mixed media printmaking work.

my transparencies ready to be exposed on Solarplates - stay tuned for the next step!

What's the Buzz?! (part two)

4/20/2018

Last week I met the QUEEN!

My friend Steve Boyden keeps bees behind his home in Wilmington. After I raved about his Christmas gift of Boyden's Bees Honey, he suggested I come visit the bees in the spring. The opportunity came when Steve decided to start a third hive and needed to introduce a new queen bee. So on a recent chilly morning I arrived at the hives and suited up in Steve's beekeeper gear, ready to help with the bees and their new queen.

What an amazing sight! Thousands of bees, all working to gather pollen and build the hive. The sound was just as thrilling, a loud, droning hum of SO MANY bees!

I had every intention of sketching as Steve worked, but I was too engrossed in the process. I did a few sketches from photos when I got home.

I'm not sure I am ready to start my own hives yet (though "Bishop's Bees" has a nice ring to it) I will do my part by planting lots of flowers along our kitchen garden. Stay tuned for more sketches of flowers, butterflies and bees!

Curious about bees???

Here are two good videos to see what it's like. The first one is a charming chat with two English beekeepers checking on the queen in a hive. (The Guardian, Beekeeping: why we love bees, 5:06 minutes)

www.theguardian.com/environment/video/2012/apr/18/beekeeping-bees-video

The second one is a fascinating interview with a bee "trucker" who hauls hundreds of hives all over the country to pollinate fruit trees. (PBS America Revealed: Flight of the Honey Bee, 2:15 minutes)

http://www.pbs.org/video/america-revealed-flight-honey-bee/

What's the Buzz?! (part one)

4/12/2018

I am thrilled to have my first Delaware class on the calendar - and it's a GREAT one!

Please join me at the Delaware Art Museum on April 28 and 29 for a weekend printmaking workshop. It's called Ferns and Flowers Monoprinting and it's part of the programming for the beautiful new exhibit Eye on Nature: Andrew Wyeth and John Ruskin. Just like these two artists, we will be inspired by nature. Using spring plants and simple materials, we will explore the possibilities of organic and geometric compositions with layered shapes and colors.

Class #1: Gelatin plate printing with acrylic paint

An easy technique for home printing, “gelli” printing is super fun and great for creating botanic imagery and a stash of yummy collage material.

Class #2: Monoprints on the large etching press

Students will use flexible acrylic plates, water-based inks and a professional etching press to create beautifully detailed prints by layering a variety of plant material and found objects.

All materials in this class are non-toxic.
Students should wear work clothes or bring an apron.
Beginners and creative explorers of all levels are encouraged and welcome!

Saturday, April 28 and Sunday, April 29 (2 day workshop) | 1:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
$80 Members, $100 Non Members

Register at www.delart.org

Questions? please email me at [email protected]

"Old" Friends Learn to Letterpress

3/15/2018

I just enjoyed a wonderful weekend with my "old" friends from college. What better reason to get together than to celebrate a year of 50th birthdays? They joined me from Virginia, New York, California and Tennessee. We laughed SO hard at all the old photos! It took us right back to those formals, beach trips, weddings and baby showers. What a gift to have friends like this, still strong after 30 years!!

I wanted everyone to take home something special to mark the occasion, so I made a date for us at Lead Graffiti in Newark, DE. According to Ray and Jill, the creative gurus behind this amazing letterpress art studio, Lead Graffiti is "a laboratory of sorts for all things letterpress—a place where you can do some serious experimenting, as well as creative & playful tinkering." Let's just say, I'm hooked!

We got to use two antique cast iron hand presses and two newer Vandercook machine presses. The workshop was called Werkman Druksels, based on a kind of printing that uses the forms of letters and numbers as design elements. Each piece was individually inked by hand, then printed in layers to make cool shapes.

Letterpress is a BLAST no matter which press you use!

hint: one takes more muscles

These are three of my prints from the party - SO MUCH FUN!
You've got to try some Lead Graffiti for yourself!! (twist my arm and I'll even go with you.)

You couldn't ask for better teachers - Ray and Jill even gave us birthday cupcakes for snack!

Who says you can't teach an "old" gal new tricks?? Cheers to my sweet friends - the ones who came to Wilmington to see me and cheer me up in the snow - and the ones who couldn't be here but still make me smile.

The Bishop makes a fine DJ and bartender, but I'm voting for a tropical island with a cabana boy next time we get together...
maybe to celebrate turning 51?

A pastor, a rabbi and and artist...

2/23/2018

...walk into a museum.

People keep telling us that Delaware is such a small state that unlike the six degrees of separation in the rest of the world, here it's only one or two. It must be true because within a few months of arriving, I received a call from the Delaware Art Museum asking me to get involved in a special project!

In conjunction with the new exhibit Eye on Nature: Andrew Wyeth and John Ruskin, the curator asked several leaders from the faith community to offer recorded responses to specific paintings to be used in the audio guide. I was honored to be asked as an Episcopalian artist. Among the others participating are some wonderful folks who are Jewish, Muslim, Quaker and non-denominational Christian.

The exhibition explores how Wyeth and Ruskin, though living 100 years apart, "shared a lifelong obsession with the close observation and finely rendered imagery of the world around them." The question for us was, "What relevance does the work of art, or Wyeth/Ruskin’s act of looking at nature, have for our own day and age?"

John Ruskin, I have since learned, was also a watercolorist and urban sketcher! He took his journal everywhere with him and sketched on all his travels, around home and abroad. My 19th century kindred spirit!

"The Path at Brantwood" by John Ruskin (1870) on view at the Delaware Art Museum March 10 - May 27, 2018

I look forward to seeing the complete exhibition and the works by these two masterful painters. If you are curious about my response to "Path at Brantwood" please read on...

We are looking at John Ruskin’s watercolor painting, “Path at Brantwood.” We see a sketch of steps leading along a path in the woods, a paused moment during a familiar walk around Ruskin’s home.

I imagine Ruskin tromping around his estate on the well-worn path by the lake and through the trees, taking a break from concerns and responsibilities. He stops, steeped in his own senses – breezes ruffling the leaves; sun seeping through the branches and shadows moving over mossy steps – and he is filled with a love of this solitary place. Of course he stops to sketch, each mark emphasizing the memory of this moment.

This world of discord and dissonance can still offer us rare moments of overwhelming peace. I think we often encounter them when we are alone in nature, away from the endless chatter of television and phones -- when we make time to feel deeply and open our hearts to God’s creation around us.

I find these moments when I am painting, when I must stop to study the curve of a branch or the colors in a flower. When I stop to really, really look at what is in front of me. As painter Georgia O’Keeffe said “When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it's your world for the moment.”

I am a travel sketcher, like Ruskin, and I appreciate the urge to stop and pull out my paints. At the beach or along the Brandywine, I remember a painted scene better than anything I’ve ever photographed. Why? Because I have slowed my pace, quieted my worries and stopped to look closely at something I love.

My name is Caroline Coolidge Brown. As a printmaker, painter and urban sketcher, my Christian faith guides my curiosity and passion for art of all kinds.

Art Evangelizing in Delaware

2/8/2018

It didn't take me long to start spreading the art love around here! Kevin and I attended our first Diocese of Delaware annual convention in January and I took the opportunity to create a collaborative project with the 300 people attending.

The piece is called Visual Oratory. It's an idea I first developed at General Seminary in 2006 as a way to embody the prayers of the community into visual imagery. An oratory is a place of prayer and the final installation is meant to suggest the colors of stained glass, the movement of smoky incense, and the music of hymns and songs.

People were invited to write any kind of prayer on pieces of colored plastic with black sharpies. I combined them with embroidery thread and hung them all together.

“I call on you, O God, for you will answer me:
give ear to me and hear my prayer.”
Psalm 17:6

The 2006 version of Visual Oratory hung from a tree in front of the seminary chapel, casting lovely colored shadows as it rustled in the breeze.

This Visual Oratory was hung behind the altar for our Eucharist celebration, helping make the hotel meeting room a little brighter. I'm happy to report that these prayers will move to Friendship House, a homeless shelter and ministry at the Episcopal Church of Saints Andrew and Matthew in Wilmington. The staff and guests of Friendship House will keep adding their prayers to the sculpture, making it bigger, brighter and more layered. Each piece reminds us that we are all connected in our prayers for each other.

Special thanks to Danny Schweers for sharing his pics from the convention. He is also an Art Evangelist, combining his gorgeous photos with original prayers on a blog called photoprayer.com. You can see all his work at dannyschweers.com.

ch ch ch CHANGES!

12/28/2017

or...long time, no art

We knew it was going to happen, but WOW! were we unprepared for the joy of this day!

Wait, let's back up. At the end of June this year, Kevin and I traveled to Delaware (Dela-where??) for walkabouts and interviews, as some folks seemed to think that he would make a good Bishop. Amid a host of excellent candidates, my thoughts were mixed - the honor and the challenge would be wonderful, but why leave our friends and fabulous church in Charlotte? Then in July...he was elected! Good grief, this was really happening! August...we brought the kids to Wilmington to see our new house, "Bishopstead," (complete with koi pond and elevator!) September... we fixed up the house to sell and began to pack. October...moving time plus one last trip together to Montreal before Kevin started work in November.

And in the midst of all this change, I was packing and moving and now unpacking and reorganizing my studio. It became an unplanned sabbatical from my artwork as I focused on making the transition easier on Kevin, Margaret and Emily. Not to mention Lola, sweet old schnauzer, who can't see or hear very well these days. I'm trying to be patient, and I truly am thankful for all the blessings of this new adventure.

the BEFORE

making some progress

Lola "helping" with new shelves

So here we are in December and I find myself married to the Bishop of Delaware and celebrating Christmas in a new home. Wow.

The consecration weekend was snowy, beautiful, dramatic, full of friends and family, sacred, humbling, musical, and oh so special. If you want to view a special consecration edition of the Diocese of Delaware's news magazine, please click HERE. If you'd like to view the whole ceremony on YouTube, please click HERE.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all!

I wish you Joy and Wonderful Creative Adventures in the year ahead!!

Art as Story

11/4/2017

Between the turmoil and excitement of packing and moving from North Carolina to Delaware, I saw a call to artists from one of my favorite organizations, ECVA - Episcopal Church and Visual Arts. I've been involved with ECVA many times throughout the years, exhibiting my work in their shows online and in New York. Their membership represents a wide variety of artists and styles who share a commonality of expression in honor of God and in community with the Episcopal Church.

I'm pleased to say that this mixed media piece, Valley of the Dry Bones, was accepted to the new ECVA online exhibit Telling God Stories in the 21st Century.

Biblical themes often influence my artwork and challenge me to question how MY story aligns and overlaps with God's Holy Spirit. Mixed media paint, drawing and collage allows me to layer prayers and stories quite literally into the artwork.

Valley of the Dry Bones was also juried into the 2015 exhibit The Body Beautiful at Ciel Gallery in Charlotte, NC. Here's my statement for the piece:

The body has the miraculous power to heal, whether it is tissue, muscle or bone that needs to mend. The text beneath the x-ray tells the story of the Valley of Dry Bones in the Biblical Book of Ezekiel; the breath of God restores life into the lifeless forms, a miracle that makes the dry bones dance. Pulsing with vibrant colors, our bodies experience both seasons of brokenness and ache alongside seasons of blossoming and healing.

I love when my art story connects with my viewers. To give this story a happy ending, I was thrilled when a friend purchased this piece and asked if she could use it on the cover of the book she is writing!

Please visit the ECVA exhibition Telling God Stories in the 21st Century at www.ECVA.org(click here). And remember that God's story is also our story, every single day.

Valley of Dry Bones
10"x10" mixed media painting (acrylic, book pages, wood, wire, screws and x-ray)

Making a New Home

10/24/2017

So the Browns have arrived in Wilmington, Delaware!
If you've done it before - packed up your life into a thousand cardboard boxes and plunged into the deep end of a new life in a new place - you know what an act of faith and holy patience it is.

So much that is UNKNOWN ahead...where is the closest grocery store? will we make new friends? will Kevin like his new job? will I find a place to make and show my art? can I continue to teach? and where are the lamps that go with all these shades?

But one very known aspect of this move was our new home, Bishopstead. How very wonderful to have a job that comes with a fabulous old house! Built in 1912 by members of the Du Pont family, Bishopstead is in a lovely neighborhood near the Delaware Art Museum and between two big, gorgeous parks. And as you can guess from this photo, it is grand and quirky.

I can't wait to share more details of this amazing place, but for now, let me share a poem written for me by my Charlotte friend Mary Cox. It's been on my mind a lot, as I wade through packing paper and this "in-between" time as we work on the house and get ready for the work of "real life" and office hours and disciplined routines to begin in November. Thank you to Mary and all our Charlotte friends who have encouraged us and prayed for us in this new life. We couldn't have done this without you.

Home-making (for Caroline Coolidge Brown)

You never planned to be a clergy spouse ----
you didn't think you'd fit the job description ----
but God called Kevin. What's a girl to do?
Dismay and panic, verging on conniption ----
and then a daffodil: God said, "You're in this too.
And oh, you've not been called to keep a house."
In fact, you've packed, unpacked ----but not to stay ----
for all too soon, another moving day.

So you've made homes that travel where you go,
crafted of scraps and love, and prayer and laughter,
love's joyous dance, a few unbidden tears.
It's the routine a hermit crab would know ----
no certain space for happy-ever-after,
a heart that's housed wherever home appears.

This time between the houses here and there,
routine suspended, life packed up in crates,
remember that whatever house awaits,
we are each other's home, where hearts connect,
open to other hearts. You can expect
your home's already eager to begin
unpacking in the house you'll put it in.

Mary W. Cox, October 6, 2017.

Taking my ART on the road

9/15/2017

The October moving date approaches quickly. Kevin and I are busy wrapping up church and gallery commitments, keeping the house nice and neat for the realtor, and saying so long (but not goodbye) to our dear Charlotte friends.

On the other end in Delaware, folks are writing notes, painting walls in our new home, and making plans for our arrival and Kevin's December consecration ceremony. What a gift to be loved on both sides of this transition!

I was thrilled to talk to Jerry Hames, one of my new Delaware friends and a writer for the Episcopal Journal, about my artwork and my thoughts on the move. I loved that he calls me "A Modern Itinerant Artist" who is comfortable with "improvisation and experimentation." True, true.

Please take a look at the whole article HERE...and stay tuned to see what creative inspiration will evolve from my new studio in Delaware!

Ready Lola???
Let's go for a ride!

A Gathering Place in the Mountains

9/9/2017

Ah, Kanuga...

The project came together based on the Holy Comforter hymn, "Let Us Build a House Where Love Can Dwell." Everyone placed their own home on the forest altar around the larger blocks of Holy Comforter. My photographer and writer friend Mary Cox (who took many of these photos) summed it up with this lovely haiku:

If you've been lucky enough to spend time at Kanuga, you know what I mean. It's a retreat from the world, a time to spend hiking in the woods, rocking on the porch, singing with friends, sleeping with the windows open.

The only thing that could have made our final Holy Comforter retreat at Kanuga any better would have been to include ALL our HoCo friends...but somebody's got to hold down the fort in Charlotte, right?

The art project turned out better than I could have imagined! We talked about houses and homes and moving and what makes a place special. People, young and old alike, created homes with random wooden blocks and shapes, paint, letters and lots of glue. The finished blocks are just as diverse and creative and wonderful as our group!

Love will follow us,
into every new house--we
are each other's home.

Other highlights of the weekend included songs with Grey Langley around the fire, on the porch and in the HoCo Late Show with a special new verse of "Sweet Caroline" and an homage to the new Bishop-Elect of Delaware to the tune of "Wagon Wheel" (He's the new Bishop of Delaware, hope that fancy mitre hat don't mess up his hair...)

Plus an amazing Bluegrass Eucharist with the West End String Band from Greenville, SC and a hike up the mountain with pals.

Holy Comforter Episcopal Church really is a place were love dwells in every size, shape, age and color. Kevin's last Sunday is tomorrow. Sigh. We are going to miss you all.