Alone in the Meadow

I never did post completed pics of some of my paintings I finished recently. This one is called "Alone in the Meadow." I put quite a bit of time into this one. I especially enjoyed doing the sky. I have always loved clouds and still find myself looking up every time I step outside to see what new forms are there that day. In many of my pieces you may notice that the central clouds are light, celebrative and peaceful or joyful. Off to the edges there are usually dark grey clouds. To me this is symbolic of the transition from dark to light that we experience on our spiritual journeys in life. With each new understanding, we have new light to illuminate our lives.

The tree in this painting reflects how I feel at times. I am perfectly comfortable with aloneness and often enjoy it. I love my friends and family and need them. I also need my alone time and this painting expresses that way I feel when I have a little time to just enjoy life for a few hours by myself doing whatever I really want to do. The tree is basking in the sunlight that is pouring over it and it reflects the way I often feel that life is pouring over me and wrapping around me with goodness, be it in my child's hug or in the way I feel when I paint.

Most of my paintings are filled with meaning and emotion to me. I don't often share them because I have never really known if I had an audience who cared. A recent conversation with a patron of mine changed my mind that some people actually might be interested in knowing some of the long details about the thought process and meaning behind my works. So I will start putting some of the explanations behind my works on my blog. Others I'll write out and file away if they're too personal to share right now.

I always have atleast a dozen paintings in my head. Right now I have 26. We'll see if I can get to them sometime here. I have another large painting project this weekend and then after that I may be able to start on the main series I'm feverish to do. A wonderful artist and very interesting man I met on my trip to Ohio 2 weeks ago, observed as I was browsing his works in his studio/gallery, I have a busy mind.

Art at the Mill

Friday morning I drove out bright and early to drop off the piece that was accepted into the juried show at the Millwood Mill in Clarke County. If you'd like to go to the show, I will be heading out several times. I'll post which dates here if anyone wants to head out to the countryside.

I was one of the first people in line because I had to be back in Fairfax at 11am and they didn't take any works in for hanging until 10am. I did get a chance to look around. Almost everything there at the time was realist work and most of it landscapes. Almost everyone else in the building had been an artist about 40-50 years longer than me. It was a bit intimidating. It's not that I can't paint realist landscapes, though maybe not with the drama that the masters there did. I actually tend to shy away from traditional realism and lean toward a bit of abstract in my scenes. But their work was beautiful. And the white haired artists standing in line with their paintings tucked under their arms, were a lovely sight.

I could have sat in that old mill for hours, absorbing the hues of the paintings that were being hung. It smelled just like my parent's barn - in fact the beams looked like they were cut the same way.

I'll be going to Ohio this week and probably spending some time sketching and photographing at my parent's farm. Maybe once I get back, if I can find the time, I'll get some Ohio landscape on canvas. My parents have this 400 year old oak tree that I've been wanting to paint for some time now. Maybe that one will be a good subject. We'll see what catches my eye when we're there.