Wishing

Lots of titles suggested themselves to me for this painting (8 x 10) of a tangerine and two lemons. I set up the still life this morning wanting to portray human feelings by the arrangement of the fruit, the relationships of each to the others by proximity and protuberances. Stems and blossom attachments have always made me think of eyes and mouths.

I had only two lemons and one tangerine and their colors looked lovely in early morning light. That's why they were the chosen ones over apples for today's painting. Thinking of choices, people chosen for friendships and love affairs, gave me the idea of having the lemons as a club, the tangerine looking on, wishing to be a part of the group.

I have many thoughts and emotions while painting. Memories are dredged up while I'm in right brain mode. Of course, I'm also thinking of shape and space and color and light and dark and palette strokes, but painting provides space for meditation and remembering. Wistful scenes from childhood came up repeatedly - times when I was excluded from games and cliques and birthday parties. I wanted to tell the tangerine that it would be ok, that there were other friends to find and other parties that would welcome a lovely orange fruit. Ah well. Sadness has its purpose just like shadows and muddy hues. These all make the bright happy times stand out in contrast. All is used in life for good purpose.

Left Out. Excluded. Sad titles, so I settled on Wishing. If some wishes aren't granted, others are! I ended up feeling old and wise at the end of this painting session, and most of all, happy with the paint working together. Emotions and memories aside, I'm glad that I seem to have produced lemons in oils - a challenging subject for me.