autumn in January

On a roll with painting - this is my fourth in four days. The sunlight wasn't great this morning so all fruit in the kitchen did not inspire. I looked through old resource photos and found this one that I took last fall. I'm not sure where - possibly Rappahanock County in early November. I don't think it is our farm - I can't place those trees.

I know swirling paint around with a palette knife can be hack work. But. You do have to be careful not to end up with a muddy mess. I think some colors in the foreground grass may need to be dulled down a bit, then again, I don't know. The middle tree, the focal point, may also need some tweaking. Or, I'll leave it for now. I'm enjoying the time travel in my mind to not so long ago. I love watching trees change through the seasons, knowing that they will bloom again in spring, grow green in summer, and dazzle in the fall, leaving their true shapely forms to be seen in winter, stark and bare against the grey sky. Barring a sudden windstorm or blight, we can count on trees to be there.

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.

the driveway

Finally back to painting after several weeks. The sunlight was glinting off the grass, giving it a silvery blue sheen in places. I changed the tree line a bit to make the composition stronger. I'm learning that I don't have to make a map of where I was and copy actual shapes, but that in landscape it is quite ok to edit or change features to make a painting. I don't know why that hasn't sunk in before now - it's not a new idea!

news

This Saturday, December 5, I will be at the St. Nicholas Day Craft Show and Sale at Leeds Episcopal Church in Markham, with my paintings. I am showing with another artist, Jean Beckham. At the moment, most of the paintings are gathered in my living room, in various stages of framing. Relatives are curious as to the prices - one thing is for sure, they keep going up! My father was considering buying one last night, and I kept upping the price by 100 dollars each time he dithered. We had to laugh, and he agreed my final price was what it should be, although maybe he regretted not buying it when it was 300 dollars less.

What did sell last night at the family council was the cow triptych - my brother bought all three and I was willing to let them go rather cheaply as he agreed with me that they shouldn't be framed and that they should also be displayed as I like them - propped on a mantle or table next to each other. I had thought about hinging them together, but I kind of like the looseness, also it is important that they be seen as a group of three. And, I can visit them when I visit him.

It's so hard to let my paintings go! I need to get over this...

autumn maple

This little maple tree is not all that noticeable to me, even though it is one of a pair that flanks part of the driveway. Other trees around it and behind it drown it out, but for a few days this fall, this tree took center stage on its small hill.

8 x 10, oil applied with palette knife, on linen covered board.

more pear trees

A small painting, 8 x 10, again of the Bradford pear trees that guard our driveway entrance/exit. I love this view of the path winding into the trees - this is the fourth painting I've done so far of this image. I used my palette knife (really green and clean, no solvent involved) and instead of canvas, this is linen adhered to board. I found these at the Pratt art supply store - the only place I know that sells them. I'm checking into Pearl Paint and online art stores - such a wonderful surface to glide paint onto with a knife! The downside is finding frames to fit them - they are exactly cut to measure and have no excess to fit into frames - they fall out of the hole! But the manufacturer carves holes into the back so that they are easy to hang onto a nail or screw in the wall. I like to keep costs low for buyers - paintings are way cheaper without frames provided by me. Keep that in mind!

morning mist

This painting is 16 x 20 inches, oil applied with palette knife. I enjoyed painting the back tree line, trying to convey mist and morning light breaking through. The front field grass is dense, and changes color according to how the light hits it. I put the path on the corner - a risky move compositionally, but it felt right. I wanted the sense of the road just there, but the center of interest is the sun's presence, about to break out.