SARAH JANE CONKLIN'S FINE ART & BOOKS
  • Home
  • Paintings
    • Birds Nest Gallery >
      • Made in the Maritimes
    • Galleries
    • Water Paintings
    • Winter Scenes
    • Nova Scotian Landscapes
    • Feature Painting
    • Commissions
    • Daisies
  • Books
    • What's in Flora's Shoebox?
    • Nesting Grounds
    • Flying colours
    • Two Tough Birds
  • Shop Merch
  • About
    • Current and up-coming exhibits
    • Newsletter Sign Up
  • Contact
  • Poems
  • Blog

BLOG

Space.....the final frontier.

9/17/2019

1 Comment

 
Are there times when you would like to be beamed up to a faraway galaxy? We are in the age where we are bombarded with the sensory assault of our devices, and are involuntarily connected to the turbulence of our world. Our hurried lives are filled with busyness, and every minute is accounted for. By the end of each day we are emotionally and physically exhausted. Time and space are at a premium and a rare luxury. Whether it is alone time with your thoughts or a quiet place for your senses to rest in a painting, we seek out places to breathe. We welcome these ‘spaces’, physical and emotional, and are comforted and calmed as with a good cup of tea.
Picture
Wide open fields or ocean vistas may not be in all our cards. Today's ‘space’ guises itself in warmly lit coffee shops, stacks in used book stores, the treadmill at the gym, or perhaps the halls and walls of an art gallery. Creating space for myself and others in my home has come naturally to me, whether it’s for angst and angry teenagers, or for friends and family in healing times when words fail. By creating space for others, we are offering refuges and sanctuaries with no expectations. A place to pause, de-stress and perhaps quietly reflect. A place to just be.

In paintings, this ‘space’ is often referred to as ‘the quiet area’. Artists deliberately create areas where the eyes can rest. These areas are where viewers are invited to ponder, consider and perhaps speculate. For a brief moment, your shoulders relax, your breath softens and your thoughts wander beyond the scope of a one-minute radius.

When our lives become busier and more hectic, finding and allowing space in our lives becomes essential. Whether you create it for others, acquire it on your yoga mat, come upon it while stargazing or identify a personal significance of ‘space’, it will lead to tranquility and maybe some self-discovery. I encourage you to boldly venture into an art gallery and linger in front of a painting. Once you catch yourself breathing, or transported in your thoughts, you will have found ‘space’. Congratulations! Consider yourself an explorer of the ‘final frontier’. “Live long and prosper”.
1 Comment
Lelly Pell
10/1/2019 03:53:07 am

Well said. Thoughtful and informative about space and space within art ! Thank you for allowing me to take this moment to find my space to relax and breathe in and out. Leslie xx

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Sarah Jane Conklin. Visual artist living in Nova Scotia.

    Picture


    Archives

    November 2020
    June 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    May 2019
    February 2017
    January 2017
    April 2016
    March 2016
    November 2014
    October 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    August 2013


    Picture

      CONTACT ME

    Submit
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Home
  • Paintings
    • Birds Nest Gallery >
      • Made in the Maritimes
    • Galleries
    • Water Paintings
    • Winter Scenes
    • Nova Scotian Landscapes
    • Feature Painting
    • Commissions
    • Daisies
  • Books
    • What's in Flora's Shoebox?
    • Nesting Grounds
    • Flying colours
    • Two Tough Birds
  • Shop Merch
  • About
    • Current and up-coming exhibits
    • Newsletter Sign Up
  • Contact
  • Poems
  • Blog