Golden Light

"Golden Light"    12" x 16"   Oil on Canvas$
$400    PURCHASE

I began this painting while reading the section of Tolkein's Fellowship of the Ring where Tom Bombidil appears.  Tom stole my heart the first time I read the Tolkein trilogy:  his oneness with nature, his wisdom, his wholeness of heart and his perpetual singing.  When I did the first drawing for the painting, I wrote "Tom Bombidil's song" underneath the drawing.  To make the title more inclusive, I called the painting "Golden Light" because this interpretation of the Tallulah river feels to me like the Withywindle close to Tom's house where he found his wife, Goldberry.

A Place To Sing

"A Place To Sing"   14" x 18"   Oil on Canvas
$400     PURCHASE

After just having finished The Hobbit, I am reading again Tolkein's Trilogy, Lord of the Rings. One thing that endears me to the hobbits, dwarves and elves is their love for singing.  Even when not singing, the hobbits will often hum to themselves, especially late in the evening on their way back from a stroll.

This new painting is about music as much as it is about anything else.  The scene is a tiny piece of my beloved Tallulah River, but on that day I was sharing this place with very special friends who are themselves musicians as well as kindred spirits.  We--not unlike the hobbits traveling away from their familiar homes to unfamiliar lands, feeling a bit vulnerable, but determined to make their journey--can always find a place to sing.

Tallulah's Early Spring

"Tallulah's Early Spring"   16" x 20"    $400    Purchase

So where is our focus when we're painting?

I am convinced that it is the peripheral thoughts that give the painting its spirit.  Whatever pulled us to the subject in the first place will guide us throughout the painting if we don't allow our minds to wonder away.

What led me to do this painting was the feeling of renewal I experienced standing on the edge of the upper Tallulah River in the spring, at just the time when the foliage was getting ready to burst forth.  Light on the water was dazzling and the water's sound was unusually musical.  The fact that it spoke to me was all I needed.

Modern colleges and universities focus on the conceptual, concerned more about their students belonging to the modern age of expression where it is more important to reflect a culture than it is to listen to one's inner voice.   What worries me about that is how many students swallow that philosophy rather than question its validity, thus shutting out their own uniqueness.  One's inner voice should never be muted, but rather should be provided with skills, techniques and knowledge to enable it to speak clearly.

I yearn for the day when a thousand university art students can stand on the edge of a riverbank and paint what it speaks to them.