Themes...

Dappled 2   oil on canvas   40 x 30 x 1.5

I believe that it is the path of the serious artist to paint those things, those ideas, that are important to her...those remnants that when left behind, will help to decipher the life of said artist.  I did not set about painting with any themes in mind., but I did follow my interest and paid attention to my intuition.  After several years, I realized  that one of my interests is "things dappled", things wabi-sabi, those things of pied beauty.  I am certain that what lies beneath this whole spotted and imperfect notion, is a distrust of black and white thinking as well as a personal dislike for the purebred, the pedigreed.

Thus, one of my themes is "things dappled".  I hope to continue all this vein for some time to come. "Dappled" and "Dappled 2" have been included in the Artists Archives of the Western Reserve annual May exhibition.

Glory be to God for dappled things--
For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches' wings;
Landscape plotted and pieced--fold, fallow, and plough;
And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim.

All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:
Praise Him."
— Gerard Manley Hopkins (The Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins)

P.S. I was a little freckle-faced girl.

I think that I'm getting the hang of it!

Dappled 2   oil/canvas   40 x 30 x 1.5

....making slide shows, that is.  Painting will always be, I am hoping, a bit of mystery with unknowns to resolve in playful resolution.  My progression of "Dappled 2" can be seen at the right.  This painting was rather straightforward...8 frames.  8 sessions.  8 passes.  Some paintings are done pretty much on the spot, with perhaps some fine tuning when dry.  Other paintings morph and morph and morph over the months and represent quite a struggle....but I always learn something.  Dappled is a series that I will be dipping into over the next few years.  Wabi Sabi.  Imperfect.  The opposite of purebred, thoroughbred.  Inside/Outside.  Tattered.  Comfortable.  Unpressed.  Wrinkly.  Patinaed.  Scratched.  Me.

Click on "Some Paintings" to see a larger version of the finished work.