Old Painted Doors and Gates

by Young, Asha Carolyn

• ISBN13: 9781543941326
• ISBN10: 154394132X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2018-08-30
• Publisher: Bookbaby

Summary

In her book,"Old Painted Doors and Gates," Asha Carolyn Young shows a vibrant selection of old wooden doors and gates she has painted over a period of several decades. This is a playful, welcoming, fun, elegant, colorful, texture-rich presentation of the old doors and gates. Some doors are majestic and very large (old Berkeley front doors over 100 years old). Other doors and gates are cute and small, rustic and unique. Young's palette is bright, cheerful, with emphasis on pinks (bright pink, bubble gum pink, salmon pink), orange, yellow, turquoise, sky blue, teal blue, grass green, lilac and deep purple. Highlights are gold and silver on the doors, creating a bright, sparkly mood. Some doors are like spiritual entranceways, with soft, featherlike brush forms over the wood.

Young writes about her experience finding the first old gate when she was first arrived in San Francisco and lacked funds for canvas or paper. She writes, "Perhaps there is poetry in poverty, if one looks for it. I found poetry when dire circumstances led me to painting on old wooden doors—objects people had thrown out."

Young also shares thoughts on the symbolic aspect of doors and gates, which have enchanted her as she sanded, varnished and painted them. She writes:

"Doors are mystical passageways, gateways to transformation, thresholds to the Unknown. They are entranceways to new levels of growth and openings to Spirit. We wait before closed doors anticipating their opening, wondering, "What is on the other side?" We stand before, within and beyond thresholds of all sorts. We cross through many doors as we grow, live and experience. We wait for our beloved, looking out from our doors, and our friends greet us at their opened doors. Some doors, we approach with reluctance, yet others we run joyfully toward. And sometimes our life chapters are clearly marked by an old door closing and a new one opening."

The book includes 25 photographic reproductions of selected doors and gates, painted between 1995 and 2018.

Young is author of two other self-published books related to art, published by Flowering Light Books: "Carry Your Own Joy: The Abstract Paintings and Life of Hari E. Thomas, A San Francisco Artist" (2015), and "Journey to the Tracks: Industrial Landscape Paintings and Sketches of Oakland, California" (2017).

Author Biography

For my seventh birthday, my father gave me a set of oil paints and said, "Just don't eat anything;" and I began squeezing tubes of luscious paint and enjoying my big brushes. I still paint, now with a variety of mediums, approaches and surfaces. Each approach offers unique experiences and outcomes. Painting on old wooden doors is sheer fun. Born in Thailand, I turned to art as a bored, restless teenager when my mother suggested I take a course in Chinese brush painting. This led to a lifetime of enjoyment painting on a variety of surfaces with ink, acrylic, chalk pastel and oil. In the 1980s, I studied Art at Laney College, after finishing studies in Cultural Anthropology at UC Berkeley. I also took private lessons with a Japanese brush painting master, Kayoko Bird, for about seven years. Since then, I've painted on my own, focusing mostly on plein air landscape and seascape painting, as well as mixed media abstracts. I started painting on old found doors in 1995 when I first moved to San Francisco and didn't have a job yet, meaning I lacked canvas or paper. I found this marvelous old gate outside the studio I was sharing on Natoma Street. I knew the deep grooves in the weathered wood would take oil paint nicely. Soon I was painting on large, stately doors, along with rustic gates. I am author of two previous books related to art, both of which I self-published under Flowering Light Books: "Carry Your Own Joy: The Abstract Art and Life of Hari E. Thomas, a San Francisco Artist" (2018); and "Journey to the Tracks: Industrial Landscape Paintings and Sketches of Oakland, California" (2017).I live with my husband and pet family in Northern California.