Elijah (30″x40″ mixed media on linen) was one of many paintings exhibited at The Highland Galerie in Columbus, Georgia this spring. Immersing in creating this painting was a very mystical experience for me (please see the Judaica page here on this website to read about it).
This recent painting explores the notion that while alive on earth, everything and everyone is infused with light and an essence of love. Earthbound, yet of pure love (heaven). Actually, this not just a concept or a notion, but rather something we can sense and generate, expand upon. To choose to see love more than to see angst, for example, and to celebrate the glow of light in everyone and in ourselves is to be as if in a garden of bliss that we tend to ourselves. Recently this painting was at The Highland Galerie in Columbus, Georgia and one viewer said the area of red clay (mid right side) reminded her of the moment just before God created Adam out of clay (humans being of the earth with all its conditions but created in a divine image of the Creator).
Between Heaven and Earth 36″x40″ mixed media on linen
A few months ago I was contacted by House & Garden UK and they asked if I’d like to be in The Art Edit. Of course I said yes! This is the August 2025 Issue. My art and text is #10.
“Elaine Clayton, a New York City based artist and author has returned to her Southern roots, where she brings what is outside inside with her lyrical and harmonious paintings. Inspired by the sunlit flora of the Deep South, she captures that unique essence of wonderment and charm for interior spaces.”
The South is full of light and floral beauty, it inspires and lulls me into day dreams. There is harmony in nature, even with the chaotic wildness and I find myself painting the feelings I get when out in my courtyard, meandering around to see what new buds have appeared over night. This piece exhibited in the Funding Future Artists exhibit recently and is now with a private collector.
When I lived in rural Connecticut, I dreamed one night of Sojourner Truth and a magical garden that, in the dream, she was cultivating with people of all races coming together to grow miraculously abundant food. I painted in honor of that dream, and the painting recently sold to Chaz Ebert, who is in the process of creating a major project to honor Sojourner’s life and legacy. I painted a second portrait of Sojourner (she gave the other as a gift) especially for Chaz and her Sojourner project. And now, as if Sojourner herself (and Chaz’s husband Roger Ebert, from his place in heaven?) the project is “gaining a life of its own” as Chaz so well put it. Now Chaz has commissioned me to paint 3 more, two for direct descendants of Sojourner Truth (!) and a third for another iconic trailblazer, Gloria Steinem. The spiritual momentum has me giddy with joy.
(My portrait of Sojourner for Chaz Ebert/ 2019).
Water Color Stream Drawing/ August 2019
I’ve been doing stream drawings (stream drawing is a drawing meditation technique I developed and you can see more at MAKING MARKS: Discover the Art of Intuitive Drawing/Simon and Schuster) with studio visitors and it is enlivening, relaxing and at times profound. Playful, creative (our natural state of being, in essence!) presence at times springs forth wisdom, conscious awareness in the form of surprise and delight, and gives us the chance to see things in new, unexpected ways. Book your stream drawing session time with me and let’s see where it takes us.
