Blinded by Emotion: Can Visual Art Express Such a Thing?

I have a thread of blindness running through the years of my life.

This morning I determined that my preoccupation with seeing (which results in painting, among other activities) but not understanding (a wee bit of what we now call autism, maybe?) results in a kind of sightlessness that has lived within my shadow side as long as I can remember.

Read More
Thimgan Hayden Thimgan Hayden

"I Worried" a Poem by Mary Oliver

… I saw that worrying had come to nothing.
And I gave it up. And took my old body
and went out into the morning,
and sang. -Mary Oliver

Read More

Beauty and Bocklin

As humans we aren’t always in the mood for beauty, and that’s totally a valid state of mind. It doesn’t mean beauty is no more. I think Beauty meets us in our deepest moments… it folds us entirely, including our pain and want, in its gentle arms and rocks us back and forth as a loving mother might.

Read More

My Georgette Heyer Project

I started on this project because I’m a Heyer fan myself. It was my mom’s idea to do some paintings of Heyer, because she wanted to hang one as inspiration above the table where she (my mom) writes and figured other fans might as well. We both wanted a painting that felt vintage and was pleasing as art, yet recognizable as a portrait of Heyer.

Read More
Collecting, Painting in Florence Thimgan Hayden Collecting, Painting in Florence Thimgan Hayden

What's the Story Behind Thimgan’s Art?

I enjoy reading about the lives of artists and finding interesting intersections in their lives and social circles. Take the Pre-Raphaelites or Impressionists (any school of art) and we discover painters, sculptors, poets, writers and musicians who mingled and influenced one another.

By owning a Thimgan Hayden original, you are participating in an art lineage, a provenance story, that will outlive us both.

Read More
Collecting, about new works Thimgan Hayden Collecting, about new works Thimgan Hayden

What Every Painter Wants

In this case, Leeanne Seaver (Wonder Woman of word and camera) is a dear friend and wrote this beautiful blog post, the sky inside, linked about the making and new life of her Scottish gloaming painting, ‘Wolfy’s Sunset’.

if you’re as fascinated as I am with the powerful relationships that can happen because of art and how creativity can knit us together, then please jump to Leeanne’s blog post. You’ll enjoy it. But do me a favor and pretend I’m not wearing Crocs.

Read More

The Simple Guide to Art Collecting

Original art will outlive both the collector and the maker. Since the dawn of time, people have had the compulsion to create art and organize their life experiences into “story” through pictures, poetry, music, and a variety of narrative forms. I’ve stood in front of pieces and wept unexpectedly….

Read More

Varnishing Oil Paintings

Anyone who's done any research quickly learns that there are some structural problems that can happen when oil paintings are varnished before the three to six month drying time.

Of course, as artists that sell work, this is somewhat problematic. We don't necessarily like storing pieces for that long. Fortunately, times change. New studies and experiments happen. While I'm not a chemist or materials expert, I am a researcher-type and I'll share some art "street talk" about it here.

Read More