top of page

Inspired by Clouds

Writer: sharonkingston
sharonkingston
Jun 20, 2014
2 min read

There have been a host of exhibits that I’ve participated in lately relating to SKY, ATMOSPHERE, CLOUDS and everything ethereal.  Optimism?  Our bounty of northwest sky imagery?

I’ve been inspired by clouds since connecting with Rilke in 2010.  Probably because this subject connects so well to the idea of the unsayable and the ineffable and the mystery of our existence.  I wrote in my blog back in 2012 this statement and it still holds true for me…

I’m committed to painting large.  This painting is 48 x 48 and the subject and my style are quite wonderful at this scale.  Not only do I feel like the luckiest person on earth when I’m working on these paintings in my studio, but I am completely engrossed in both the process and the result.  It’s as if every painting I’ve done over the past two years has been a study for these new works.  There is subtlety and boldness, energy and calm, depth and surface and just a universe for the eye to wander in.  Rilke is all about merging the polarity of existence–and finding a way to express and unify these elements in my paintings has been an underlying intent in my work since embracing his words as a muse for my work. Evening Love Song Ornamental clouds compose an evening love song; a road leaves evasively. The new moon begins

a new chapter of our nights, of those frail nights we stretch out and which mingle with these black horizontals. Rainer Maria Rilke

Here are just a few of my cloud inspired paintings or as I like to call them, cloud portraits.  They are all large scale works measuring 48 x 48 inches.


Being Radiant, original oil on canvas painting by Sharon Kingston, available through Smith & Vallee Gallery

Cotton Candy Clouds for Chloe, original oil on canvas painting by Sharon Kingston, 48 x 48 inches

Ornamental Clouds, Original oil on canvas painting by Sharon Kingston, 48 x 48 inches, private collection

 
 
 

Comments


studio/gallery

open by appointment only

please call / text

360-739-2474 or

email sharonkingston@me.com

​

ALL SALES FINAL.

NO REFUNDS or EXCHANGES ON ORIGINAL PAINTINGS  and FRAMES.

​

  • Instagram

Source and technique have melded in my paintings in such a way that poetry, nature, color, light, mood and atmosphere are at one with my method of layering oil on canvas.  Void of visible brush stokes and seemingly lit from within, I have spent my career mastering my method and using the outer world as a shoreline to our inner longings.  My paintings, often paired with poetry that I am contemporaneously reading, offer an opening to the contemplation that accompanies those moments in nature where melancholic beauty quiets us.  Mimicry of an objective nature is less the goal than evoking the mood and atmospheres of our existence.  

​

In my recent paintings the sea and sky have taken on a larger and more energetic role, giving me the space to explore a loose yet structured mark making—just as the sea and sky themselves are both chaos and order.  I find inspiration in scrims; the veil of fog, the glare of sunlight on water, the quieting as night approaches and everything is reduced to shadow and light, the revealing of a well of color at dawn and the heaviness and energy of a storm.

​

I live in Bellingham and have a storefront studio in the downtown area.  I have been exhibiting my work professionally for the past 20 years.  My paintings are held in collections throughout the US, Canada, Europe and Australia.

​

I have exhibited my work extensively in galleries and curated shows since 2008. I currently show my work at my storefront studio only--by choice-- and have no gallery affiliation at this time.  

Make an appointment to view paintings by sending an email here.

SHARON KINGSTON STUDIO

203 PROSPECT ST

Bellingham WA  98225

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

bottom of page