Lola Jovan Art Musings and Random Thoughts

Into The Mystic

12/8/2025

Into The Mystic

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Into The Mystic
oil on copper panel
12 x 12 inches
This item is unframed
(click on the image to purchase)

Hark, now hear the sailors cry,
Smell the sea, and feel the sky,
Let your soul & spirit fly, into the mystic.

- Into the Mystic - VAN MORRISON

How long can an artist remain lost at sea? This theme of the beautiful pea green (or mint green or teal or or or) boat continues to enchant and inspire me! This week we have another solo explorer - Wonder Mike! He wanted to be the captain of his own ship and so off he goes.

The longer I live in the Pacific Northwest, near both mountains and ocean, the more I notice my deep craving to get out into it - to smell the sea and. feel the sky. This time of year it isn't as easy, what with the deluge from above day after day. But I can let my soul and spirit fly into the paint, into the words, into music and books and grand imaginings. Now and then, when the rain breaks for a moment, my feet can walk the forest path or the rocky shoreline, lost in the mist and chill and terrain, the smell and taste and feel of all that gray (blue-gray, green-gray, gray-brown, soft gray, light gray, dark gray, medium gray, opaque and translucent gray).

I feel reinvigorated just describing it. Oh yes.

Bonus Malarkey! A little animation of a recent pen and ink drawing, just for fun.

Here's the link to this video on YouTube

About the art: this piece is painted over an epic failed painting on copper panel. The beauty of the paint-over is all that delicious added texture! I covered the original piece with a thick layer of neutral colored oil paint and let it dry throughly, then sketched the main character and boat with a mid-sized brush and thinned oil paint. Working outside-in to refine the shapes, then inside-out to build layers on the dog and the boat. The background was completed last, using thick layers of paint and alternating between brush and palette knife. Voila!

Here are the final two installements of the Question Exchange with the amazing Carl Stoveland! Take a look/listen and please let me know what you think, either by commenting on YouTube or here in the blog.

Last month's winner had a masterful idea of how to ask each other five questions in a most creative way - I can hardly wait to share the results! In the meantime, leave a comment on any blog post this month to be automatically entered in the December Reader Giveaway. I've got questions! Maybe you do, too?

6 Comments

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Lola Jovan

Dotty Seiter

12/7/2025 07:58:13 pm

First of all, tell Wonder Mike that I jumped out of my seat and starting clapping when I saw who was in the beautiful mint green boat! Huzzah!

Also first of all, does Wonder Mike read your blog posts??? SURELY he didn't let such terms as "the character" and "the dog" pass muster.

I love your grayt litany of blue-gray, green-gray, gray-brown, soft gray, light gray, dark gray, medium gray, opaque and translucent gray!

And I love the magic inherent to a paint-over, i.e. all that delicious added texture! YUM.

=====

Re the Question Exchange with the amazing Carl Stoveland, thank you both! I appreciated your candor and vulnerability, your thoughtful questions and thoughtful responses. In the final segment I was especially drawn to your shared conversation about making the commitment. Again, thank you thank you!

lola

12/8/2025 02:09:52 pm

Dotty!!! Hooray! Wonder Mike is rolling his eyes and nodding and saying "I know, right?" about my references to his image in the art. Sheesh! Now I am going to have to give him extra treats.

Thank you for enjoying all the gray...it is our specialty here in the winter months, and I fully embrace it.

It means so much to have you watch and listen to the Question Exchange with Carl, and to have your feedback! It truly felt special while we were talking, and I am still buzzing with wonder at our questions and answers. Can hardly wait to see what you and I "talk" about with our Question Exchange! xoxoxo

Thea

12/8/2025 11:21:19 am

Love that damn song! Was just humming whaling shanties yesterday! Also enchanted by your animated tea with monster, and your verbal palette of greys.

12/8/2025 02:10:35 pm

Thea!! Whaling shanties! How FUN! Yay! Thank you for enjoying the animation and the preponderance of GRAY in the PNW! Woohoo! xoxo

Carl Stoveland link

12/8/2025 12:17:04 pm

Ahh. For me summer is time I don’t get out much the heat and rain keep me inside. Teaching keeps me plugged into my work. It doesn’t replace the outdoors but it helps. I’m quite lucky by the time summer comes around I’m happy to spend time in my makeshift studio.
Wonder smoke makes a fine Captain for his little ship.

12/8/2025 02:12:04 pm

Carl!!! Oh, I recall those Florida seasons. The complete opposite of this coast! And it is a must to be inside down there in the summer, just like most of the time here in the winter. Speaking of, there is a deluge outside my studio windows right this minute! SPLASH! xo

Into The Mystic

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