Norah Joy Clydesdale

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 My work has revolved primarily around people for the last six years. I'm a teacher and always observing and studying people in real life and this helps me greatly intuitively when I am painting portraits. 

June 2005 : As far as painting goes, I tend to agree with those that say little, and prefer to let the paintings speak for themselves, however I do think it is important to talk about what happens on the” inside” and particularly when we are propelled into another dimension through paint, colours and forms and when this propulsion becomes so intense that it becomes an every day occurrence and need, not a “sometime” or a “one time, from time to time” occurrence. I want to talk about what happens when we are on this particular path,( I see it within myself as well as in my students who have also chosen to use painting as a tool and a path.)

What seems to be important on this path is when there are “breakthroughs”… when all of sudden the “pieces” of what we have been working on for a short or a long time seem to coagulate into a mainstream idea within our own imagination.. This is an exciting feeling ! Like discovering a new land or a new space to explore.

Things also seem to “bottleneck” just before the breakthrough,meaning we have the impression of being in a space that is just too small and no longer comfortable..so of course the feeling of discovery is even greater. This is what has just happened with the “Collage” works on the Overdreamscapes gallery.

All of sudden I started seeing how different paintings actually fit together into a whole in terms of colors, ideas and forms . Repeating the motif (in the form of the painting ) also help to increase the effect when you see the paintings re-united together. It is as though we were able to start painting the “pieces” of the master plan and then were able to see at last how these pieces all fit together. I know this is going to have an effect on future paintings. I don’t think it can be any other way as there has been a sort of altered vision now when I sit down in front of the canvas.
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May 2007
A new life and a new vision of things. Tara in the fields was done in September before I left for Italy. The most recent  painting is Madonna in the fields. These two paintings have been done with a different approach, not only in my mind's eye ( a consolidation of sorts of the the major themes of the last five years) but also a change in technique which has happened gradually and as a consequence. Teaching has had an effect on this change in my way of painting as well. My students have taught me as much or more than I ever taught them, that is a fact. All stems from one's "vision" and perception of things and the technique follows in line as the vision changes. To be continued.

Between then 2007 and now, end of January 2011.. alot has transpired. New beginning in Colorado,  a new culture, new people and a different way of being to get used to, but there is a merging going on of the earlier themes of my paintings here and now and also a wild desire for the abstract of movement and energy which I attribute to my complete re-immersion in the art  of making music.. and of course in reality, there is no real separation between the two. We are in fact always looking for the lost parts of ourselves we left behind somewhere because of this event or that, and in my case changing continents, and peoples and cultures perhaps making it a little more difficult to reconnect with all the parts of myself.. with the idea of bringing them to fruition in the shortest time available to me ...as I do sincerely believe we have no guarantee of tomorrow only the reassurance of being here today..