34" x 28"
Acrylic on watercolor paper
Original sold • limited edition prints available

The “Voyage of Virtue” was painted vertically (the small red mark will be in the upper right corner when viewed vertically) during a private painting workshop with young artist, Kris Quammen, at my Central Florida pole barn studio. I was giving a demonstration of gestural painting, and as I stood up from dipping a large brush into a bucket of paint on the studio floor, my entire arm (with dripping brush in hand) made an expansive circular movement in front of the easel - only to (lightly) touch the paper at the lower center (see the fiber movement from the brush).

Seeing the drips trickle down the paper, I dropped the paint brush and quickly removed the piece from the easel, to dissuade the drizzles from traveling any further. The painting is now laying on the studio floor and as Kris and I walked around the painting to view it from all sides; the profile of a woman’s head and upper torso became clear. We were both intrigued and Kris said something like; “now how cool is that!” And off to the easel he went.

Naming the painting happened a couple of weeks later as I was sitting at my desk, looking across the room at this piece and pondering a current issue with a gallery manager. Then I remember thinking that the image (horizontal) reminded me of the carved masthead’s from the Viking ship era. And then, the title popped into my head. I said, this situation is truly a voyage . . . of virtue!

With a little more thought about titling the piece “Voyage of Virtue” alongside the housekeeping issue at hand with the gallery manager and the metaphorical meaning of a Viking ship masthead . . . . . . this painting reminds me to stay true to one’s course, in light of adversarial challenges and to be open for creative solutions. A Voyage of Virtue indeed. AND! Thanks much Kris for participating in the Zen of painting!

Brenda Heim, 2003