This week I am going to spend time with an old friend the Weeping Cherry that used to be in the center of my yard. I planted it in memory of my mother because it bloomed around the time of her birthday. This is my Mom and me at Easter. Looks like I am around 10? I painted many versions of the tree over the years. I am posting the ones I have left. Later in the week I will post a video of some of the paintings.
I love Forsythia as it burst out of corners and the middle of fields with the abandon of new life. One of my pet peeves is the way some gardeners insist on creating balls of yellow instead of letting Forsythia do its thing in the Spring. There is plenty of time to trim it after it blooms and let it grow naturally all summer so it can really "spring" at the end of winter. Here is an oil painting from a few years back when St. Joe's did not trim their Forsythia at the wrong time. Since then they have consistently created tame hedges of thwarted life instead.
I tried to no avail, at least so far, to create a water color of Forsythia. Four paintings in the trash so far but I will try again. This serendipitous approach is fun but hazardous.
It's the wrong season for this water color but it is the right time to post it as it fits in with the nature theme.
AUTUMN
12" x 16"
water color
Here is another way to get around the problem of either colors running together or having a thin line between them with water colors - simply leave space between colors. Of course the white has to make some kind of aesthetic sense. Here I think it is fine as it adds to the Daffodil cheeriness.
This is a water color of the den we used to have. One thing about painting your environment as opposed to an abstraction is that there are memories, associations and unconscious reverberations that simply do not exist when viewing an abstraction. On the other hand you can project whatever you want onto an abstraction.
On this rainy day in March when we who live in this area are at the end of our patience with winter, it is the imagined joy of spring that keeps us going. I hope this image of one tulip helps you hang in there a bit longer. It works for me.
Winter weary? Buy a bunch of tulips or this water color and cheer yourself.
Here is an example of two different ways of painting the same pears. The first with really wet paper and the second done as the paper is drying.
11" x 14.'5"
A lot of what you see from the train window is other people going places in trucks and cars. Sometimes their color combinations are a joy to...
