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A Year With Rilke: April

Writer's picture: sharonkingstonsharonkingston

One of the most iconic scenes from the Pacific Northwest is the mist on hills, or more poetically as I like to refer to it, the softness touching the earth. There is something about the sky mingling with the tree tops that stops our gaze. I started painting this subject not long after many of my family members passed in a short time frame. Those of us that believe we are only a breath away from death, only 2 inches away from the unknown, find comfort in the idea that the upper realm of sky can physically and visually interact with the more permanent and heavy objects standing firm on the ground in such a beautiful and metaphorically rich way. This subject is a caress and a whisper, it is dream drapery and dew-cloth and drifting meadow of air. And it is endlessly admired and adored.

The Words: We, when we feel, evaporate. We breathe ourselves out and gone...Does Time, as it passes, really destroy? It may rip the fortress from its rock; but can this heart, that belongs to God, be torn from Him by circumstance? Are we as fearfully fragile as Fate would have us believe? Can we ever be severed from childhood’s deep promise? Ah, the knowledge of impermanence that haunts our days is their very fragrance. (A Year With Rilke, translated by Joanna Macy and Anita Barrows, April selections)

The Color: Xanadu: It's a Chinese city, a 1980 musical flop, and the gray-green color of the philodendron leaf. A Year With Rilke: April the knowledge of impermanence that hauntsour days is their very fragrance 96”x72” oil on canvas



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    studio/gallery

    open  Thurs - Sat 4 - 7 pm
    and by appointment

    please call / text

    360-739-2474 or

    email sharonkingston@me.com

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    NO REFUNDS or EXCHANGES ON ORIGINAL PAINTINGS  and FRAMES.

      SHARON KINGSTON STUDIO

      203 PROSPECT ST

      Bellingham WA  98225

      my studio gallery is now  OPEN
      Thurs - Sat 4 to 7 pm
      First Fridays 4 - 9 pm
      and by appointment

      please send me a text with the
      day and time you'd like to come by.
      360-739-2474

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      Sharon Kingston is a Bellingham WA (Washington) based artist.  As an oil painter she uses the properties of her medium to create paintings that respond to both the atmosphere of her surroundings and poetry. This method of looking inward and outward and, in the moments of painting, finding her way on the canvas is her approach to creating paintings infused with poetry and the memory of landscape. The atmospheric element of her work is a testament to her desire to create spaces that are undefined, contemplative and allow room to reflect and accept uncertainty. Poetry, by nature open ended, is used both in the conceptualization of the work and as a part of the studio practice. The words of Rainer Rilke have informed Sharon’s work for many years, but she also turns to contemporary poetry when it resonates with her life. She uses layers of transparent color, reveals forms by concealing and unearthing pentimenti and suggests elements of landscape in her process.

      People describe her paintings as ethereal, atmospheric, contemplative, PNW inspired, and filled with light and mood.  She has a storefront art studio in downtown Bellingham and welcomes you view her paintings in person.

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