Majesty

"Majesty"    "12 x "14"   Pastels on Paper"
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The subject for this little painting sits in the Tugalo River, once one of a triumvirate of piers holding a covered bridge whose history reaches back into the mid 1800's.  The stones were cut from a quarry nearby.  But this painting is not so much about the bridge or even this single pier as it is about the stalwarts we humans abandon, especially in this new world of modernization.  It is easier to ditch an old thing than to shore it up and keep it going.  We place more value on the market than we do on the seeds that provided the produce.

Thoughts of Lothlorien

"Thoughts of Lothlorien"   20" x 16"
 Oil on Canvas
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This painting began because I was drawn to a bright blast of light radiating from a tree on the edge of the riverbank.  As the painting progressed, the images Tolkein paints with words describing Lothlorien kept floating in and out of my awareness.

One problem in painting is finding the right balance between showing the brightness of light without blinding the viewer and making it bright enough in the right places to convey the experince of it.  It's very much like getting the right volume with music without blowing out everybody's eardrums, or for a poem, choosing words strong enough without screaming.  It's this balancing act, among other challenges, that keeps me fascinated with art.

Golden Light

"Golden Light"    12" x 16"   Oil on Canvas$
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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
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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.

Another Iris Study

"Another Iris Study"   7" x 5"   Oil

I caught my one blooming iris in sunlight, so just had to do another study of it.
    Of all the flowers nature gives us, the iris is one that since childhood has continued to capture my attention.  So even though most of the yard is in shade, it's the one flowering plant I get excited about during the spring months.  This one ended up producing three flowers even though it was the only plant that bloomed this year.

Iris Study

"Iris Study:    5" x 7"   Oil on Canvas Panel

I have a fairly large bed of bearded irises, but this spring only one bloomed.  I caught this view of it late in the afternoon just as the sun was setting.  It's amazing how much light is left at dusk.

Forty-one Strokes Project: Money Plant Study 1

"Money Plant Study, 1"    5" x 7"   Oil on Canvas
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I've been in a creative drought for several weeks now.  I've lost count of how many sub-par paintings have gone in the trash.  Finally, the spring flowers started to bloom.  My backyard is filled with money plants and hostas.   While the hostas' foliage is filling out, the money plants are flooding the ground with their varying hues of purple.  The azalas are in full bloom, my one lady slipper has appeared again and out of dozens of bearded irises, one has blossomed.  In the woods, the dogwoods bloomed weeks early and already gone.

With all this life bursting out around me, I could not break the drought, not until I decided to challenge myself.  I decided to lay out several 5" x 7" formats on unstretched canvas and attempt to capture some studies limiting myself to forty-one strokes.

Today's post is the first of these.  I set up for myself a set of rules:  (1)  A stroke is the duration from when the brush touches the canvas until it lifts, (2) There is no time limit between strokes, (3) Preparation time--i.e. drawing, notan studies and toning--does not count as strokes and there is no time limit to that, either.

Doing this challenge seems to have broken the drought.  As I continue to complete these studies, I will post them and make them available on my Daily Paintworks auction.  And I give myself permission to trash any that don't please me.

The Survivors: My Neighbor's Pines

"The Survivors"      12" x 16"      Oil on Canvas
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This little painting--white pines in my neighbor's yard--began as a demo showing how to discern value differences in shadowed images. It was a gloomy day, mostly gray giving me a subject ideal for the lesson I was teaching.  Rarely do I finish a demonstration, but this one kept calling me to make it into a painting.

I have always respected this little stand of trees.   Several years ago, they were doomed to one of those blights that was attacking white pines.  The tree experts advised my neighbor to chopped them down, but he refused.  Instead, he nursed them back to health.  These days, they are as lovely on a gloomy day on a bright one.

Morning Dawning on the Tallulah

"Morning Dawning on the Tallulah"    16" x 12"    Oil on Canvas
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Mornings are getting my attention lately.  This painting is another winter's morning along the Tallulah River.  I've painted this area of the Tallulah many times, each with a different spirit than the others.

Some of the most magical times I've experienced here have been during the early morning hours, whether because of the light or the season or after a rain or just the quietude that allows our souls to be still.  And when you think about it, mornings are among our strongest metaphors.