Watercolor Sketches...

Island on Lake Panache

Sunflowers...Lake Panache

Canoe on Lake Panache

represent freedom to me.  Plans are discarded along with lofty goals.  No thoughts about exhibition entries or saleability.  Limited supplies.  Paint what you see.  Whew!  These sketches, all done on the spot were painted on a 7 x 10 watercolor block.  There were others.  These are the three more successful ones.  It actually took a day or two to find my "watercolor feet" again....to come to terms with the illusion of control and to avoid over-rendering.

They don't have to be perfect.  After all....they are just sketches.

!noitcefrep

Hidden Symmetry   oil/canvas   48 x 24 x 1.4

I recently saw a t-shirt with "perfection!" printed backwards......it made me chuckle and also summed up how I feel about that notion. We have lived in Brimfield Township for over 20 years. One of our landmarks was always a beautiful old barn with two amazing steeples, all in a state of disrepair. The rumor persisted that the owners were going to restore it. I finally got around to photos for a painting. Two paintings resulted. "Hidden Symmetry" is a metaphor for me of each of us. We seem to strive to be upright in so many ways. Sometimes it is exhausting. But we sag, lean, and topple.....we are flawed.....we have character....we are lovely. Two weeks after completing the paintings, the steeples were removed to the trash heap. We are also impermanent. "Hidden Symmetry" will be exhibited in Youngstown at The Butler Institute of American Art 72nd Midyear Exhibition from July 13 - August 24.