Hello Everyone!
We are coming up on Labor Day weekend as I write this. It is all about marking a day of respect for the workers, which, face it, is most of us. Yay us!
I work.
I recall a conversation that I had with my dad once. A long time ago we were on our way to a local frame shop so that I could help advise him on mat and frame choices. He asked me if I thought I was a good painter. I replied that I was definitely not the most talented painter I knew, but I was among the hardest working. He thought that was terrific. His Depression Era work ethic loved my words. My Dad was one of the most emotionally reserved people I have known but when we got to the shop he was beaming with fatherly pride. He announced loudly to the shop clerk that his daughter was here to help him today! She is a painter! She isn't very good, but she works really hard!
I love you too, Dad.
Anyway...
How lucky I am, how appreciative I am to have the luxury of working with paint. Sometimes thoughts of a painting will slowly ricochet around my head for months before I even try to mix the colors on my palette for that piece. I have been trying to take my paintings to the next level. So I find I am not as prolific, but maybe, hopefully, the quality is ever increasing. Because I like to always keep moving, keep experimenting, keep thinking of different ways to say the same things, familiar ways to say new things. I am at the point now where I recognize that there is always more in any scene. That is where the placement of animals in my pieces has come to play in the last couple of years. The animals and birds act as witnesses. They see your point of view. They also have their own perspective of the scene and invite you to acknowledge it.
It occurs to me that the next level is not necessarily a step forward or up. It can be a step sideways. Or it can be staying in the same place but going deeper or wider than before. Or simpler. Who knows? There is always a backstory, always more than meets the eye to any scene or event we encounter.
When a Solar Eclipse Comes to Town was inspired by the events of last April. I thought about how to approach this painting for months. Finally, I chose to do it all in one moment: the deepest richest darks that cause the automatic lights to come on, the spareness of the buildings and hedges of my back alley while they are in transitional light. The weirdness of the blue-greens. Witness to these strange goings on is a howling dog backlit by the streetlight.
I hope that this time of year is proving to be a time of great work for you.
Take care!
Jill
