Kind of Blue © 2020, Molly Larson Cook Acrylic on Canvas, 30″ x 24″ Available When I lived in New York a few decades back and took acting classes and thought I might one day get back on a stage, I developed my “Who woulda thought” school of thinking. I was a small town girl from Idaho suddenly breezing down 5th Avenue or … Continue reading Painting in the Pandemic
“I Want to Talk About You” from the Colors of Jazz Collection © 2019, Molly Larson Cook I don’t just read books or blogs or news articles about art and neither should you. Like people in any working field, we want to keep up with what’s new or useful in our own but we also need to bring out whole selves into our work. This … Continue reading Jazz – and Other – Lessons
“…usually – but not always — the piece you produce tomorrow will be shaped, purely and simply, by the tools you hold in your hand today.” — Bayles & Orland It’s still another month before I’ll see my paints and painting tools again, so I’ve been spending my “dedicated” painting time reading about the creative paths of other artists instead and taking a look at … Continue reading Art and the Moon
“…What the river says, that is what I say.” © 2019, Molly Larson Cook 18″ x 24″ Acrylic and ink The summer heat has finally arrived in my part of Mexico. Unfortunately, the heat is accompanied by humidity I didn’t expect, so the days are muggy and mostly still. No cool sea breezes now, although the sea is just yards away. The good … Continue reading If It Feels Right, It’s Right
“…whose woods these are I think I know…” Acrylic on canvas 20 X 24 ©2019, Molly Larson Cook (Poetry and painting) I thought it was perhaps because I’m so relatively new in the art world. Or maybe I was overthinking the work and my art brain was rebelling. Or maybe my quirks were taking over and nobody but me had this oddly vague idea … Continue reading The Spirit of the Work
In their fine book, Art & Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking, David Bayles and Ted Orland make a distinction between art problems – which are unique – and ordinary problems – which are, well, ordinary. Their point here is that ordinary problems may be ordinary but they are in no way trivial. Ordinary problems are the ones that consume too much … Continue reading Art Problems and Ordinary Problems – They’re Not the Same
“Secure Your Chains” ©2018, Molly Larson Cook 18 x 24 Acrylic on canvas “X-rays of famous paintings reveal that even master artists sometimes made basic mid-course corrections (or deleted really dumb mistakes) by overpainting the still-wet canvas.” –Bayles and Orland, Art & Fear Several years ago, back in the days when I was a full-time writer instead of a full-time artist, I taught a course … Continue reading Making (and re-making) Art – Nobody’s Perfect
“Boy, Howdy” ©2018, Molly Larson Cook, 22 x 28, acrylic on canvas Available The Dog Days of August are upon us…the lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer with heat waves everywhere on the planet. This weather is conducive to one thing for artists – doing as little as possible. Not that we’re not doing anything. We’re just doing the little things like reorganizing our supplies, … Continue reading Doing As Little As Possible
Mexican paper flowers Leave home, leave the country, leave the familiar. Only then can routine experience—buying bread, eating vegetables, even saying hello—become new all over again. – Anthony Doerr So I did. Left home, left country, left the familiar. Okay, I only did it for a couple of days over Memorial Day weekend, and it wasn’t far from my front door to the border of Mexico, … Continue reading Traveling with an Artist’s Eyes…and Heart
“Morning Dance” © 2018, Molly Larson Cook Acrylic on canvas, 24″ x 30″ “Painting is the easiest job on earth, until you get to the painting part.” Brian Rutenberg I’d like to meet Brian Rutenberg and if I ever get back to New York, I’ll look him up. I found this line of his on somebody else’s blog and immediately remembered Picasso’s declaration that … Continue reading The Painting Part — with Singing and Dancing
Art and Tulips 