Laden

Laden   oil/canvas   20 x 20 x 1.5

is perhaps the best word to describe the peak of winter joy for me...trees weighted down with snow, their shapes achieving completely different personas.  We take notice.

This is my front yard.  Foreground drifts are thickly described using few strokes and a palette knife.  The trees are fairly accurately described.  The warmth of the background has been amped up to achieve a more dynamic relationship with the foreground.  

An older painting with plenty of texture was covered over in this work.  I am finding that I really enjoy the layering over of canvasses....more surprises, more character, more chaos.  What a rush!

I am pleased.

It;s The Berries

Raspberry   watercolor   13 x 10.5

 "Raspberry" was such a fun watercolor project!  As I become bored with the repetition and seriousness of more serious projects, I throw in a bit of fun now and then.

This began as a monoprint in watercolor and finished up with the usual brush and paint.  A loose drawing is made and transferred onto a piece of tracing paper.  The reversed tracing paper drawing is put underneath a piece of plexiglass which is the approximate size of the paper.  Paint is applied directly to the plexi.  Paper is then pressed down onto the plexi.  You can use a baron if you want to....it changes the reception of the paint onto the paper a bit and flattens it out.

The painting is then continued as one would do usually, by assessing just what needs to be done.

By starting with the loose chaos of the monoprint, the work often has an energy of its own and a textural quality in direct opposition to the direct application of paint with a brush...this process shakes up the creative problem solving element, which refreshes my  desire.  

I like this painting!

Radishes

 

Radishes   oil/canvas14 x 11

Gotta say....I loved making this painting.  Painting vegetables and fruits gives me the opportunity to paint more freely, weaving darks and lights throughout nature's bounty and chaos.  (After all, there are no likenesses involved).  Cooking has been such a large part of my life (often larger than wished for).  Opportunities to cook creatively in a novel manner abound.  I also relish the opportunity to grant animation and liveliness to that which nourishes.

OK.  So I love painting radishes.  But what have I always done afterwards?  Usually a few have been sliced oh-so-thinly to toss in salads.  The remainder was pitched when they became mush.  Sad.  This time, I decided to think outside of my cooking box....they were roasted with a couple of simple ingredients.  They were unbelievable!  

Try painting radishes.....and try eating them as well!

Chaos...

October Quince   watercolor   19 x 9.5

My painting process requires chaos. When there isn't enough of it on my canvas, I create some by the purposeful destruction of passages that are too sweet, too precious. The problem solving that is a by-product of this process is intellectually stimulating. The end result is sometimes visually un-readable. But sometimes the picture contains more, and becomes larger, than the original intention. This is a very precarious walk between illusion, chaos and reality. We have to be able to see between the lines and to take in all that is presented to us....not just the good stuff. "October Quince" is a chaotic painting. Most of the ones that I do of nature have that same feeling. Painting them helps me deal with life's chaos as well. Our quince bush is a force to reckoned with, especially during mowing. Its long spikes are outthrust like tiny weapons. But in October, it burgeons with the most aromatic fruits. It is also a wonderful fortress for our tiny feathered friends.

Carl Sagan said: It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.

Transplanted

Degrees of Ripeness   oil/canvas   30 x 10 x .5

We had a beautiful holiday weekend that included visits with siblings and nieces and nephews that we rarely see....our family has been scattered across the country....in California, Florida, Louisiana, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas and Virginia. I don't that is so unusual these days. We share history with these relatives, so it is always wonderful to touch base and find out where life has been taking them. "Degrees of Ripeness" will be going home with my wonderful sister-in-law Ann Hutchinson Jenkins. She recently lost a pet of many years and I think that she was able to relate to the chaos I felt as I painted this work in a mid-July heat wave in my garden last year. I was definitely trying to make some sense of things. And.....as I also found out this weekend.....tomatoes don't grow well in Louisiana, her home, as they crave the cool nights and warm days of other climates. I am happy that my painting will find a home in her kitchen and will be a bit of a connection between us. Paintings are like children....we are always relieved when they find great homes.