Golden Sky

I take so many pictures of the sky. I am constantly amazed at the colors and the clouds. Just the other night I took my dog outside at dusk and the sky was just breathtaking. I was just in awe and felt close to heaven more at that moment. Color, light, and beauty must be my love language (ha ha) but seriously it is something that warms my soul and helps me. Then taking that information and then turning it into paintings helps me share or communicate that to others.

These photos are earlier in July or August. The golden sky gets me every time.

Thanks for checking in on my life and my art. I appreciate you!

Color and Light

Oh how beautiful and wonderful some skies are. They just are so beautiful and this was the case in these photos that I took on August 15, 2024.

I love this combination of colors so much, the golden light mixed with all the clouds. It is a magical time of day.

Pictures

I walk every morning usually two to four miles. You all probably have seen pictures of my dog, Roo. She is a Goldendoodle and we go on walks every day. It all started the end of September 2021 when my youngest son left to serve a church mission and would be gone for two years and my older son was coming and going and soon would be away at school. I started walking to cope with my empty nest. Walking has helped me so much. The thing I like the most about my walks are the skies. I usually start walking when the sun rises and it’s light enough to be outside, so all summer and also the past years, I have captured incredible skies full of light and clouds. My phone is packed with photographs from my walks. I listen to a lot of audiobooks, church messages, and some days I just think and talk to myself. I always feel good when I finish.

Art Shows in August and September 2024

Early August and September, I attended two shows, one in Sun Valley, Idaho and the second one in Boise, Idaho. I really enjoy meeting people and having conversations about their lives and about my paintings. Both were great and filled my bucket totally. I am truly humbled by the awesome responses from so many people. I feel so blessed to be a part of sharing my love for God and His son, Jesus Christ through my paintings. It is the light of Christ that radiates through my work and is my strength in my life.

In Sun Valley we had a micro burst and almost lost our tent and panels. It was kind of scary there for a bit. I am so grateful that my son had just come back to the tent right as it hit. My neighbor, who was a ceramicist lost some of his pieces. Things happen so we can learn and make things better.

These were some of the clouds passing through causing me concern.

I really appreciated having the help of my two sons. One came to Sun Valley and the other to Boise. Doing art shows is more fun with them around. They are truly a blessing and of course stronger then me. :)

Here are some of the things people wrote about my art:

“I love how you celebrate God’s love and the beauty of His creations.” Jaime

“Love the old world glaze feeling!” Nancy Olson

“I like the cows.” Theodore

“Calming, Light filled, and comforting.” Luree Welch

“Beautiful light and tone.” Cristy Meiners

“Love the colors and textures.” Veronica Costro

“I love the colors and the feeling I get looking at your paintings.” Megan Morales

“So amazing that you work in layers, love seeing the texture, love all the clouds and night sky.” Elsa Durcan

Works in Progress

I have been prepping paintings and pulling out some old pieces that were started years ago (the larger triptych) and will be finishing them. I get so excited with ideas for paintings and start them and I get them going and then for some reason they get set aside or I get excited and start another painting that becomes my priority. This is my life. I have to conciously work on finishing paintings which I do finish a bunch. I always have ideas, endless ideas. I am surrounded by fantastical sunsets and sunrises and color that just needs to be painted. It is so fun and so exciting to get the light and beauty onto my wood boards and share my ideas with you!

There are two triptychs in these pictures that are in progress. A work, such as an altarpiece, consisting of three painted or carved panels that are hinged together is what the definition of triptych is. Although my triptychs are three paintings, they are not hinged together. I have always loved triptychs. When I was in my 20’s, I travelled to Europe a few times. I would visit museums and cathedrals where I saw beautiful art. I lived in the city of Ghent, Belgium where the Ghent Altarpiece is and got to see that altarpiece a few times. Amazing.

Prepping and Starting

 

I have been prepping boards for a while now getting ready to start paintings for an upcoming show in August. A few of the boards are old paintings that didn’t find a home which I sanded off the image. Sometimes it is better to start over. In the first picture you see the boards all with a grid on them. I do this to have important lines and know where to place things. This is something I learned in college. My boards are not normal sizes which can cause chaos in framing. I make my own sizes based on the golden rectangle or the golden mean. The natural law of harmony and beauty.

Morning Pages

Have you heard about morning pages?

Author Julia Cameron talks about it in her book “The Artist’s Way” (I haven’t read the book) many people reference “morning pages” so I looked it up and basically you write non stop for three pages long, preferably 8.5 x 11 size. These pages are just for you and no one is to read them or are you to share them. They are to be done in the morning before you start your day and they are a sort of mind dump where things may not make sense even. People (I watched a bunch of YouTube video’s) say or have seen benefits to this process. It is basically just intensive journaling to clear your mind of stuff that needs to be eliminated.

I have been writing every day now for two months. I actually look forward to getting up and writing each day. I have always been a journal writer and have seen benefits of keeping a journal in my life. These morning pages have been good and healing. Also I have been asking a lot of questions.

I haven’t shared a lot of my story here on my site, but if you have known me for a while you may know my story. Twenty two years ago yesterday, my husband and I and our 17 month old son were on our way to Arizona (we lived in Ogden, Utah at the time) to go to an art festival to sell my art. It was around lunchtime and we were just going through Page, Arizona headed south. We were hungry but we decided to continue so we could make good time. Then shortly after Page the accident occurred and our truck rolled and my husband was ejected and passed away at the scene of the accident. Our son or I were unharmed, I just had bruises and some cuts and our son was fine. I was pregnant with my second son at this time also. This day changed our world!

We moved to Idaho at the end of 2009 to come assist my parents who were aging and live in the country where my young sons could have more space to play and learn. My father had Alzheimer’s which was advancing. He died in 2012. My art took a downturn during these years because I had become not only a single mom but I was taking care of my parents. Life was a bit crazy and also I struggled with depression. My mom passed away in 2018 with complications with her heart. She was the one I turned to for everything and she is deeply missed.

I have raised my two sons all these years and they are grown now and doing well. They are handsome like their father. I am so grateful for them each and every day. They are everything to me.

So back to my morning pages…. I am alone a lot of the time and writing has been healing and helping me clarify what I need to do. It has helped me to sort out how I feel and clear out a lot of unneeded things too. But the whole point of sharing my story of the last 22 years in cliff notes, has been not to feel sorry for all my losses but that I paint to share the love of God that I feel when I look at beautiful skies, sunsets, rivers and so much more. Through writing I have realized that I need to share more of what I believe and who I believe in. I believe that Jesus Christ is the true light and life and it is He that is the true source of peace and love. Nature is healing because it is the creation of our Supreme Creator and His Son, Jesus Christ. They love us so much and want us to feel their love. I feel their love when I see beautiful things and I try to convey that beauty in my art.

I thank you who read this and have supported me all these years or just started supporting me. Thanks for being here!

Sheep

I started this earlier in February just as an exercise to get better at sketching again. I have always loved pen drawing so I just started drawing one or two every day and am continuing. It’s been fun and it is easier and easier to capture on paper what I see. At first I was adding watercolor paint to them and I do love that too, but just drawing won out in the end.

New work

I’m finishing up some work.

I've been drawing and painting a lot of sheep lately. I’ve been thinking about the scripture ,“The Lord is my shepherd”. We are his sheep.

Also I'm always working on landscapes. I have been painting for years now and I am still trying to see with more clarity and understand color relationships. Just like life trying to understand relationships and get more clarity in my life.

Let me know what you think. Thanks for stopping by. Something I realize in all this creative work, is I enjoy hearing from you who like my work.


Newspaper article

Toomalatai’s art work displayed at Weiser Memorial Published by admin on Thu, 01/12/2023 - 10:13pm

By: Philip A. Janquart As a place of healing, it only made sense that Weiser Memorial Hospital would become home to art that depicts the contrast between light and dark. The hospital recently finished installing 21 prints purchased from local artist Gwen Toomalatai. They now adorn various locations throughout the new medical wing, which was completed last summer. The Missouri native’s art is based, in large part, on the gamut of emotion people experience through the healing process. “Light is the main thing that I paint; the contrast between light and dark,” Gwen said last week. “A lot of that comes from my beliefs and some of the hard things that have happened in my life, but also the good things.” It has been many years now since Gwen lost her husband in a car accident, leaving her with a 17-month-old son and another son on the way. “It was the hardest time in my life,” she said, clearly still emotional over the tragedy. “Then my parents got sick and my art just kind of fell off the radar.” Gwen was raised on a farm in Missouri and never envisioned art as a career, but now has a website displaying pieces representing natural scenes of plentiful foliage, the movement of water, rich light, colors, and warmth. She graduated from Brigham Young University with her bachelor’s in 1991. Art galleries began picking up her pieces soon after. “I started selling and was doing really well and then I went back and got my master’s,” Gwen said. It was about that time that the accident occurred, followed by her parents getting sick, which involved relocating from her home in Utah to Weiser where she could help care for them. “My art just kind of fell apart during that time,” she said. “So, the last five years, I’ve just been trying to get it back to where it was.” She opened a studio on Main Street in Weiser, but has since closed it because she wasn’t utilizing the space. She now works from home and is beginning to once again see the fruits of her hard work. “One of the things we were really drawn to when we talked to Gwen was that you can see restoration in her pieces,” said WMH Foundation Executive Director Kimberly Burgess. “A hospital is a place of recovery and so having pieces of art in our facility that brings people to a place of healing is a blessing to us and our community.” Hospital CEO Steve Hale discovered Gwen at an event in Boise. “I had seen her work, but I could never find her,” he said. “Then I saw her in Boise and we started talking. We needed some art for the new wing, and we like to highlight local artists, so we threw out an inquiry to see what we could do and it just kind of grew from there.” Gwen continues to paint and is moving forward in life. Much of her work reflects her experience growing up on a farm, which, of course, revolved around cows. Her work is on public display, so to speak, in the form of a 2011 mural depicting farm boys she painted on a building located on the east side of State Street, between Main and Idaho streets. The public can commission her to paint just about anything, including family, friends, a special place, favorite animals, etc. “Painting itself is healing to me,” she said. “It helps me overcome things because it’s a healing mechanism, like any art form, so through tragedy, there is hope; there is light and that is what I hope to convey. I believe in Jesus Christ and it’s through that light that I do believe there is healing.” To see Gwen’s collection of healing art work or to contact her, visit www.toomalatai.com.

Category: News

The Light Beyond

Weiser Memorial Hospital recently purchased original prints by local artist Gwen Toomalatai, which are now on display within the hospital’s new medical wing. From left, Gwen Toomalatai, WMH Foundation Executive Director Kimberly Burgess, and WMH CEO Steven Hale. Photo by Philip A. Janquart

Wanderings

So lately I've been working diligently on finishing up a bunch of paintings. I’m happy with them. I’m always so amazed with how they turn out. I don't always have the painting figured out when I start. Ifeel my way through. This is a lot like my life too, I feel my way through things a lot of times.

I walk every morning with our dog Roo. I’ve been walking almost a year and it all started when my youngest son left to go serve a mission for our church, The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints. It was a hard change and so to help with missing him, I started walking, mostly because before my son left he would run around with Roo and play with her, but she still needed to move ,so the birth of my walking began. Soon I realized how good it was for me and how tired Roo was. It was and still is great. As of today, I have walked 1,814 miles. It is on these morning walks that I see some pretty awesome skies and other things that catch my attention. So today I have been thinking about this blog and decided to just include my wanderings.

Trees

I was listing some new work today and writing little blurbs about them and what each painting meant to me. I came to one that was like a lot of my past paintings with trees, a sunburst of sorts, river or path and some mountains in the distance.

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I’ve been painting this type of painting for a long time and initially it has been about my journey to the light. Well what does that mean? Why do I keep repeating in some form the same imagery? As artists we all have our reasons to paint. Mine has been meditative in nature. I am trying to find meaning and purpose to my life. I believe that we came to this earth to fulfill a purpose. I am still trying to figure out mine, but I know that there is a higher source, I believe in a God of love and light and peace. I also believe as we come nearer to God, we become filled with His light and love. This is my journey to press onward. When I started painting I was younger, in college with lots of hopes and dreams. I married the greatest guy ever, Ben, and we have two sons. But life happens and Ben was killed in a car accident and my life turned upside down. Painting has been my way of processing all these years and still figuring it out. Now years have passed and my sons are becoming men and beginning to leave home. Experiencing again a change and trying to figure out things. So what does all this have to do with trees? At first when I would have trees in my paintings, sometimes they represented Ben in heaven and across the path or river was myself with my two sons on separate journeys trying to figure life out without Ben.

“Because its roots delve into the soil and its branches stretch up to the skies, the trees is universally regarded as a symbol of the relationships established between Heaven and Earth. …trees are therefore the upward path along which proceed those who pass from the visible to the invisible.” (A Dictionary of Symbols, by Jean Chevalier and Alain Gheerbrant, 1996, p.1027)

Trees do connect heaven and earth and in a painting they break up space. Trees are alive and they move with the wind. They are also rooted and grounded until a big wind blows through and those that aren’t grounded are uprooted. Just like all of us, if we are grounded, strong and our roots are deeply planted then we will be able to endure the challenges we are faced with. I am grateful for my challenges and they have helped me become more grounded in my beliefs and I do turn to God for help.

Thanks for reading if you made it this far. I am realizing that sharing how I feel is good. For so long I have been afraid to open up and share myself with others but I am trying more and more.

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Awesome sky!

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The other day I looked outside around 6 a.m. and was so amazed at the sky. It was so awesome! So beautiful and only lasted about five minutes. I am so grateful I was able to see something so beautiful!