Life Is In The Balance

In my beloved Chinese redwood grove at Narrows Botanical Gardens   Please join me on Saturday, September 9th  from 2 - 3pm at Narrows Botanical Gardens in Brooklyn  for my Artist's Talk for the exhibit Life Is In the Balance Learn about my process in making the drawings, the 40 year history of my making work that has a very similar structure in sacred geometry and radial symmetry and how my four years as a volunteer at NBG informed this project.  Find out where each drawing's subject matter is located in the garden. I look forward to answering your questions and talking about the art and nature and visualizing the connection of all life on Earth.  If you have questions, please contact me at krharris46@gmail.com.

Chinese Redwood Grove at Narrows Botanical Gardens On Saturday, August 19th I taught a drawing workshop at Narrows Botanical Gardens in conjunction with my Life Is In the Balance exhibition. I was thrilled to welcome 15 participants to our drawing studio, inside a grove of Chinese redwoods in the Gardens. We had artists from 4 to 70 years old. My students from the Bay Ridge Center were well represented and a welcome addition.     I brought a number of drawing pads and pencil and as I introduced myself I handed out the supplies. The students first task was to open the tablet and write; My Nature Notebook and their name. I challenged them to  continue to fill the notebook with drawings from nature after they left the workshop.     For those who chose an alternative to drawing the trees (complex subject matter) I had a collection of natural object for them to draw. There was a cicada, a few seed pods, a small branch from the redwoods complete with pinecones. ...

Monarch and Milkweed; in progress     Today I am laying out Monarch and Milkweed, the fourth drawing in my Life is in the Balance series funded by the New York State Council on the Arts. These drawing are inspired by a lifetime of immersing myself in the natural world and my experiences as a recent transplant to Brooklyn, NYC. The series is influenced by Islamic geometric art - a beautiful marriage of science and art. I have been creating art referencing this geometry for over 40 years. I appreciated it on a purely visual level but as I am learning more about the philosophy, I realize it is the patterns that are important. Syed Jan Abas and Amer Shaker Salman in Symmetries of Islamic Patterns indicate that the geometry mirrors the harmony of nature and defines that which is infinite and perfectly beautiful. So  it is actually a marriage of science, art and spirituality. It is the significance of seeing those patterns in life that really hit me emotionally. I don't always ...

  Waterlilies, 30"x30", mixed media, work in progress     I frequently tell my art students you have to confidently move forward because you can't react to what you can't see. In this case I am calling it jumping into the deep end.  The purple/water will look very different as this image resolves itself but this is the base/beginning. Laying out the entire image helps me see how they balance each other as they evolve. Water gardens are beautiful havens of tranquility. They also represent one of the most basic threads that unite all life, water. The first organisms on Earth evolved in water/mud. Our bodies are 66% water, the Earth's surface is made up of 71% water and the atmosphere contains from .2% - 4% water. We need to drink water to stay alive.  Stay tuned as I work on this drawing as a tribute to the numerous water features at Narrows Botanical Gardens and the calm beauty they provide for the community.  Learn more about my work at KristinHarrisDesign....

Primrose, 2.12.23 version, mixed media on paper, 30" sq   Last night I was able to do the preliminary drawing of all the parts...the fifth primrose the last piece. It is very satisfying to see it come together. The rich color of the Caran d'Ache is worth the effort. It takes a lot of pressure to get the nice solid fully saturated color. Sometimes my hands protest a bit! This versions reinforces my interest in having the next drawing include white silhouettes on color, as in the lower left circle. Learn more about my work at KristinHarrisDesign.com. and @kristinharrisdesign

I have been waiting for new supplies to continue working. Well, I had plenty to do and did keep drawing, just not what I was fixating on doing. I wanted to get the range of tools I felt I needed to depict the primrose seed pods as I see them, full of color and the promise of new life (via the seeds they contained).   #3 Primrose, 30" square, mixed media on paper, 2023   The Caran d'Ache Neocolors arrived yesterday, a third damaged in shipping. What? Oh well, I had a chance last night to experiment with cinnamon and the other lighter, more orange selection I ordered. I am pleased with the results. I continue to be impressed with the importance of contrast and how black punches out form in a way all its own. Color is queen but without a range of values, it's well,  just flat. I want my drawings to jump off the paper. I am very grateful to the support of the New York State Council on the Arts and NY Women in Film and Television for the support they are providing in this seri...