Drawing the Horizon

I’ve had a vision for quite a long time for a new series of artwork I now look forward to sharing with you. About five years ago, around the time we moved to France, the vision became clearer and stronger, and I started creating silk paintings I called the Horizon Series.

While some consider the horizon line strictly an artistic device, in this work I am using the horizon to create a feeling of balance and ease. I am endlessly intrigued by how the placement of a line on the picture plane can affect viewers’ feelings in various ways.

Questions of color, form, line, and design are endlessly fascinating to me, as are the innumerable possibilities for the placement of the horizon line in a work of art. Envisioning and then painting these designs in rich color on luminescent silk reminds me of standing at the ocean’s edge, hearing the waves gently kiss the sand, staring off at the horizon where the immense sky meets the solid mass of water covering the earth.

I realized today that I’ve been waiting for permission to begin this project, to work on this investigation, when in reality that permission can only come from me. There is no longer any reason to wait to begin.

I’d love to take you on this journey of discovery with me. I'll share my drawings, inspiration, and process, and each time I’ve completed 10 paintings I will release the series for sale. I’ve been waiting a number of years to exhibit these as a collection in a gallery or museum, and I can so clearly visualize how that exhibit would be arranged. But given the restrictions Covid has placed on us, working with you directly seems like a much better way to get my art out into the world and share my new work without further delay.

What exactly is the inspiration, you ask? Why am I steering away from architecture, from that which we find in our physical surroundings, to focus instead on a highly abstract, non-representational and ephemeral concept in time and space? My interest in this project stems from my wish to continually view the physical world with fresh eyes, unfettered by old habits and established patterns.

I am extremely excited to create this body of work that has lain dormant in my psyche for so long. I can’t wait to begin, and for us to shepherd it into the world together!

I hope you’ll accompany me on this creative venture and I invite you to share your thoughts below. You can follow my progress on Instagram at @rene.shoemaker.art and on a new Instagram account created solely for my art (minus the photos of France, cows, and travels) at @rene.shoemaker.art.only . Please share these links with friends who might be interested and encourage them to sign up for my newsletter, too! 

Before I go, I wanted to say, if you’ve had your Covid vaccination, congratulations! I have, too. If you find that you’re eager to visit family and friends after you’ve had your vaccination, doesn’t that feel good? At least now there is some hope that our lives will return to a sense of normalcy. I CAN’T WAIT TO START HUGGING PEOPLE AGAIN!!

Enjoy the spring! -René