Gifts of Art presents Emerging Joy: Intuitive Painting by Ellie Harold

When I began painting in 2003, at age 52, I did not intend or foresee a third career as an artist. I had already been an R.N. and worked in Intensive Care; I’d also been an ordained Unity minister. But now I’d been called to ‘Do Art.’ This was not unlike how, 20 years earlier, seemingly out of the blue, I’d been called to ministry. I’d learned my lesson then: When asked to serve, it is far less complicated to say, ‘Yes’ than ‘No’, even while wondering why or how. Getting on with it, I taught myself to paint with oils, starting with small still life and landscapes and progressing to larger format abstract paintings.

EMERGING JOY: Intuitive Paintings includes work that began during the COVID-19 pandemic. I employed intuitive methods and themes I first discovered while creating BIRDS FLY IN: A Human Refuge, the avian-themed installation (inspired by human migration issues at the US/Mexican border). You might detect in this exhibit the influence of artists I love - Claude Monet, Joan Mitchell, Henri Matisse and others - but this is not intentional. Rather, I come to the blank canvas without a plan, painting to see what might be revealed. I make random marks with colors chosen not by design, but spontaneously, sometimes without looking at the tube I’ve picked up. My left hand often does not know what my right hand is doing. I strive to ‘not-think.’

The isolation of the pandemic period provided the opportunity for endless hours in my studio, and I was surprised by what emerged. Unlike the endless, bleak media reports, my paintings were not depressed or fearful - indeed, they took on an exuberant, joyful quality. Instead of perching (abstractly) in treetops, my birds landed on lily pads where they then appeared to merge with lotus shapes (which could also be seen as both flowers and birds). Across the picture surface, now there was a sense of flow - and, also, pink! Could this be joy asserting itself even in the midst of so much suffering?

Painting intuitively demonstrates what seems to be an ever-present, almost magical, capacity for generating joy, even in the midst of difficult circumstances. As I let go into the process, I find a painting resolves itself in ways I could never have imagined. And, if I have been troubled, the problem often dissolves and is replaced by a quiet peace. I rest then in the certain knowledge that creative solutions to life’s challenges cannot be forced or controlled, but, when given space, will emerge spontaneously and full of joy.

May you find joy in these paintings!

– Ellie Harold