Siobhan Bedford Artist

SIOBHAN BEDFORD FINE ART

Siobhan Bedford

Season of Change

Siobhan BedfordComment
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Goodbye summer

We are about to leave the hot heavy days behind and get carried into winter on the wonderful crisp breezes of Autumn.

At the moment my little town and so many everywhere are doing the hard work of drying out from Ida. The pandemic’s shadow still stretches wide. All the while our world keeps spinning like mad. Making us all dizzy…as usual. I and maybe you are a bit withered by it all.

Still… when I look around at my little inner circle I see hints of fresh things on the horizon. Mud wiped away, seeds sprouting, travelers wandering about again, magazines pressed, homes created & recreated, trees down and trails cleared, books bound, podcasts casting, projects pivoting in all directions and on and on. I’m sure it’s just a bit of my own minds eye but everyone I know seems to be on the edge of something!

In the studio…I’ve been working on a large commission. Along with continuing the Eden Daughters series and finishing up a swirlscape mini. Also, exploring experiments with works on paper and some camera creativity.

I’ve had a few short getaways…glamping and rambling through fields of summer while trying to free up some soul space in my mind to contemplate the future. I can feel myself shifting into unfamiliar terrain. It’s a strange mix of disintegration and expansion. Like being on the edge of something…probably the big 50 on the horizon next summer;)

This painting “Butterfly Birth” from my vault is a flashback from 2016. It actually goes back further because for so many reasons…it took me oh so many years to finish it!

Almost everyone who sees this painting gets intrigued by the wing like shapes emerging from the corner. I think it’s the delight at finding something familiar and recognizable in an abstract work. It’s like seeing castles in clouds. Maybe we crave the familiar to anchor us in the seas of chaos.

It wasn’t intended to be a butterfly.

But…once it showed up as one it became one.

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For me this piece has always been interesting because of everything happening around that “wing” pulling itself free. There is shaky and stringy energy in that mix of murky and intense color. It always reminds me of what might actually happen inside a mysterious, mushy and most likely messy cocoon. It has that strange combo of disintegration and expansion. That sense of becoming by unbecoming. All very much of what I think of when I think of a season of change.

Hope all is well on the edges of your own endeavors…till next time!

ps…scroll all the way down to see my garden visitor who inspired me to revisit this painting & to read a Mary Oliver poem…that more than once pulled me through some very long days.


Art is important for it commemorates the seasons of the soul, or a special or tragic event in the souls journey. Art is not just for oneself, not just a marker of one’s own understanding. It is also a map for those who follow after us.
— Clarissa Pinkola Estes


The Black Swallowtail

The caterpillar, interesting but not exactly lovely, humped along among the parsley leaves eating, always eating.

Then one night it was gone and in its place a small green confinement hung by two silk threads on a parsley stem. I think it took nothing with it except faith, and patience.

And then one morning
it expressed itself into the most beautiful being.
— Mary Oliver

Swirlscape

Work In ProgressSiobhan BedfordComment
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Man is a microcosm, or a little world, because he is an extract from all the stars and planets of the whole firmament, from the earth and the elements; and so he is their quintessence.
— Paracelsus
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Scroll on through to travel back in time

See this little mini swirlscape from its beginnings.

For such a tiny piece…it’s surprisingly easy to escape into all its lacy eddies of blue-violet microcosm. And…with a touch of pearly iridescence.

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Lots happening in this little one. Along with using the classic paint brush I sanded and scratched onto the surface. Also, lots of tiny dots of iridescent paint drops like pearls.

It’s drying and will be available for purchase for the holidays!

If you are not already on my list you can sign up here

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Diamonds & Rust

ExperimentsSiobhan BedfordComment

Early this summer I tried a little experiment…

It was fun and pretty much all turned out to be a mess. Oh well, maybe someday deep in the future something will come of it!

The experiment grew out of interest in an artist named Marla Stoddard Hayes. I saw her beautiful art on a gallery website years ago. I was lucky to find her sharing her latest art practice with natural inks from plants and metals on instagram. It’s messy and fascinating! I love the elementalness of it…yes, I just made that word up;) I’m always curious about playing with metal in art making. Someday I hope to learn to weld…but that will be a post for another summer day!

This wasn’t all new to me. I once made stain with steel wool & vinegar. *It’s really easy…just pour some vinegar over steel wool in a glass jar and wait. You’ll get brownish/grey stain that makes wood look aged. Anyways…I’ve always wanted to try doing it with copper. It’s supposed to produce a beautiful blue/green.

I’d been on the lookout for some left over copper scraps for an experiment. I thought I was good to go after spying copper staples on card board boxes. I spent more time than I want to admit pulling them out with a screw driver till I had a nice little pile. Honestly, along the way I started to be suspicious they were only “copper” coated but sometimes “wishful thinking” can just make you believe! So…I poured on the vinegar and forged ahead;)

Obviously…from the photo below I didn’t get any beautiful blues.

Ah! Life!

I almost sure it’s Iron oxide.

This creative tangent with scraps of old watercolors lead to an intense amber “trash pile” of blotchy paper. It took on a sort of rusty leatheriness that I actually think could be interesting. I tried lots of techniques from scraping and scoring the paper to wrapping it in thread, wire and netting. I also snipped a few garden cuttings to press into the rusty concoction. Just to see what would happen!

And…there are always diamonds to be found even in experiments gone awry!

Like the interesting markings left behind from netting and the ghosts of plant patterns. I’m especially interested in the way the color pops over the black paint. And, there is the potential to someday combine this in some way with my “pintalism” experiments.

Nothing is ever really wasted.

I’ll file this all away under “hmm.”

And…I’m still on the lookout for copper scraps temping me with ever elusive blues;)

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They bring diamonds and rust.
— Joan Baez