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The Back Story

Writer: sharonkingstonsharonkingston

I created this painting over a year ago. It has been displayed often and commented on often over the course of many monthly artwalks at my studio. However, this past month it was the highlight of the show. People told me how they would never tire of looking at this painting, of how it spoke of peacefulness and hope rising, of how it reminded them of a rainstorm off the coast in Hawaii, and so many other associations. The painting is suggestive of landscape and open-ended enough so that everyone can bring their own personal reference and reflection and story to its viewing. And it has a story to me also. The story of my struggle with this painting. How it is a completely different painting underneath. Of how I coaxed and coaxed the beauty out of the ugliness. How I finally flipped the thing over, mixed up a fabulous green and painted over nearly the entire surface. How I wanted the mist to rise off the horizon and only in wiping away with a handful of paper towels and mineral spirits did the shape that I certainly could never have imagined or painted in manifest as a result of my frustration. How willfulness is sometimes an enemy and that depth and beauty and a space to breathe come after the struggle and simplification. And how personally, the acceptance of who I am finally found its way onto the canvas. Yep, that is all in this painting. Ashore and its back story left the studio with a new owner the day after artwalk.

 
 
 

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studio/gallery

open by appointment only

please call / text

360-739-2474 or

email sharonkingston@me.com

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NO REFUNDS or EXCHANGES ON ORIGINAL PAINTINGS  and FRAMES.

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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.

    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

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