Updates to my website - January 2022

Hi everyone. Here's an update on my latest works uploaded here and Instagram, LinkedIn and Facebook.

January, 2022 Update:

A lot has happened since last June. The eight "Kija Kim Courage Series" paintings I did in early 2021 were featured in ATASK's virtual Silk Road Gala in November (see separate story on that).

I will be featured on the cover of "The Quail Chronicles", a magazine distributed within the gates of the Quail West community where I live in Naples. Here's a sneak peak at the cover:

I followed through with my idea of taking 20 9" x 12" works (my "Palette Intrigue" series) and massing them on one large board. frames and hung. I now have three "Palette Intrigue Portfolio" works, really a collage of small paintings, hanging in my house. I think they look fantastic! 45" x 48". Remember that my Palette Intrigue series are 9" x 12" canvas boards that I use when I have left over paint from painting some other work. I now have over 100 additional small pieces that are available for creating more "Portfolio" works at some point. I may photograph all of them and post here in case someone would like to customize their own Palette Intrigue Portfolio work.

I finished several commissions including "Lotus Kaleidoscope 1" and "Poppy Field 2" for a friend here in Naples. I finished "Poppy Field 3", "Moondance" (featuring a very high relief moon of Iridescent Pearl - coarse) and "Lotus Kaleidoscope 2". I dove into a little Pop Art with "Bentley Blue" and "Bentley Blast", which were fun to paint, but required a lot of detail (I killed a few tiny brushes with these paintings).

I also painted a two pairs of abstract paintings, "Eye Do" and "Eye Don't", and "East" and "West", as well as the stand alone "The Long and Winding Road" which features small, built-up rosettes of iridescent colors and glass beads.

Speaking of glass beads, I painted two paintings about long ago occurrences on Nantucket Island, where Kija and I spent 27 wonderful years. A portrait sized work called "Washashores" and a landscape work called "Washashores among Whales". Back in days of large wooden, masted ships including whaling ships, some ships would wreck upon Nantucket shoals or other parts of the island, especially after a storm when the sands would be brought deeper than expected. Pieces of the wrecked ships (including the crew and passengers of the ships) were called "washashore". I the old days, many people whose ships were wrecked had no place else to go and thus helped to settle islands like Nantucket, and native Nantucketers called them "washashores". "Washashores" depicts washashores (people) swimming toward shallow water / Madaket Beach on Nantucket. "Washashores among Whales" shows washashores swimming among the whales that used to be seen quite near to the beaches of Nantucket. Each "washashore" is painted with two three colors and built up using palette knife so they are truly 3-D. These were fun abstract / expressionist paintings, and a sign that Nantucket (along with sand from Madaket Beach) will never leave me.

I visited two art shows that were spectacular: "Monet and Boston: Lasting Impression" on the works of Claude Monet at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston in July, and the interactive "Beyond Van Gogh" in Honolulu which was mesmerizing for an artist. While in Boston, I attended my sister's wedding and gifted her "unflower" and "Poppy Heaven".

I participated in the "Quail West Art Show, Choir and Champagne Tasting" event at our club, which drew about 175 people for a fun night. I sold "A New Constellation" to some friends of mine at that show - they plan to hang it in their boardroom back north.

In the coming months, I will appear on the cover of "The Quail Chronicles", which is a commercial magazine devoted mainly to ads of companies wishing to do business within the Quail West Community. I'll post the photo elsewhere on this site.

I am having fun as the founder of the Quail West Arts Association. Please feel free to check out our Facebook page for photos and stories about our activities. We have two in-home Open Studio Sundays lined up as well as a small exhibition at the main dining room of our club during dinner one night.

June 2021 Update:

I painted a Hero Painting for the Boston Police Department entitled "Blue Lines Matter 2" as part of a series of Blue Lines Matter works begun with presentation of "Blue Lines Matter" to the New York Police Benevolent Association. This painting will be presented by my friend Bill Geary (see below) once the office of Boston Police Commissioner settles down a bit.

I painted the first in a series of "Patriot Paintings", "With Liberty and Justice for All", which I presented to Bill Geary earlier this year. Bill was a mentor and professor of mine in grad school at Suffolk University in Boston. He later became Commissioner of the Massachusetts Metropolitan District Commission in the early 1990's and went on to be Chief Counsel for Clean Harbors, Inc. and stayed with them for almost 30 years before his well earned retirement. We were able to get together with Bill, his wife Maureen and their college-aged daughters here in Naples this past spring and had lots of laughs. Bill is a true American patriot - he bleeds red, white and blue.

I was commissioned by a friend here in Quail West to paint something for her husband for a "Big Birthday" gift. She suggested poppies, as she had seen a few of my other works featuring poppies. He loves Napa Valley poppies (they have a place out there) which come out in the springtime in the Valley. She provided a photo and I went from there, creating "Napa Poppies", a 24" x 36" acrylic on canvas work. Painting it was a lot of fun, and I learned a few things. R.I.P. to a few detail brushes that worked overtime to paint a few thousand flowers on that canvas. Needless to say, my friend was surprised and pleased by the presentation.

By far my biggest project over the past 6 months was to paint a series of seven paintings and a Hero Painting for the Asian Task Force Against Domestic Violence (ATASK) in Boston. My wife, Kija Kim, has been involved with this group since the early 1990's, helping ATASK to raise money by starting the "Silk Road Gala" which raises hundreds of thousands of dollars every year to support their shelter for Asian women and children who are victims of domestic violence. Kija also served as Board Chair of the organization for many years. So, I painted seven (7) paintings of the national flowers of the countries where a majority of the women and children come from who need the shelter. The seven countries are China / Taiwan, Korea, India, Nepal, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. The paintings will hang at the shelter, which is in a secret location in Boston. My intention was to give these physically and mentally abused women and children something pleasant to look at that reminds them of their home countries. While I wish there was no need for shelters like this one, ATASK does a tremendous (and often thankless) job of helping these women who have saved their own lives and the lives of their children by escaping an abusive household. So, I painted a Hero Painting (extremely well deserved) for the ATASK organization, its staff and volunteers who reach out, help and protect these women and children. It's my way of saying THANK YOU for saving and transforming lives!

One final note for the next few months. As you may have seen on this website, I paint a series of "Palette Intrigue" paintings with "left-over" paint from each of my paintings. Some PI paintings have paint from several paintings. They are 9" x 12" flat panel canvases. So, I'm exploring creating large (45" x 48") patchwork / mosaic works made up of twenty (20) Palette Intrigue paintings. Check this site in a few months to see if I was actually able to pull it off!

Do you know a Hero or Patriot who deserves a Hero or Patriot Painting? I would be honored to make one for them. The size it 18" x 24" (1 1/2" deep) and the cost is $300 which would include UPS shipping within the continental United States. I have many different styles as you can see, so just let me know (jimaylward@gmail.com) which one fits. I also include a custom dedication for each recipient so send their story and a photo to me and I will take it from there.

With warm regards,

Jim