Sunshine Painter

Overcast days turn me inward searching for something to raise my spirits. I'm a sunshine painter. Bright sunny days or violent stormy days get my juices flowing. Overcast grey days do it for many artists, and I love seeing their work, but for me I love standing in a field taking in the sun while watching big white clouds drift over head listening to the breeze swaying the rag weed around me. Fluttering monarch butterflies searching for milkweed, lumbering bumble bees gathering pollen, puffy-cheeked mice taking seeds home storing them for the winter. These little observations fill my head as I lift my brush and begin a landscape to bring sunshine to my studio.

Studio work is about creating a moment and an understanding of life. Studio work is about sharing one's life's experience, for me. One day it may be a walk through a field of flowers from long ago, or sharing the sight of a model catching the afternoon light streaming into my studio. 

Today it is the wild flowers I experienced years ago with a couple who were returning their farm to the virgin prairie it use to be. Photos I took with them aid me as I create a landscape that is totally my own. I choose my colors carefully to convey the richness of my memory of that day with them. Others who I've met over the years while walking the land have shared their love for the it through stories they've told, coloring the canvas with me.

I sit in the studio alone but I paint with those I've met over the years. I hear the voices of people who love the land with every brush load of color. My hand speaks for them as I lay the paint on the white canvas. Name of wild flowers escape me but the stories that accompany them come to mind. Painting the landscape is more than creating a picture. There is more to any painting than simple picture making. Pouring oneself into a painting is what makes that painting a work of art. Personal feelings and experiences must go along with knowledge of composition and design, and  a sense of color.

The grey day is full of color now with a fresh painting on the easel. 

Spinning Yarns With Paint

Driving past an old farm house, a painting takes seed in my head. I could simply go with the country scene laid out before me but the big old blue porch with it old wicker furniture is so inviting I begin to lay out a story to hold my interest. No novel, just a simple little tale of who may live there and how the porch plays in everyday life. The garden beds and the bumpy brick walkway add to the charm of the scene. My mind starts turning this porch into a scene for one of my fantasy paintings where I build upon a real place making it mine. While still in the country snapping pictures I invite a lovely young woman to play a part in my fantasy. She will be a tired gardener dreaming her own dreams. Driving back into town I see just the garden I want and snap a few pictures. 

Loading the new pictures of the porch and the garden over on Downer Place, into my computer I call upon Jordan to play the part of the tired gardener. I know just the photo I want of Jordan and set about looking for it. This is how I work when in the studio. Over the years I have built an extensive collection of photos to work from. I love working from life but for what I love doing I have to have references on hand. I cannot always count on models being available. When they are I have them over to the studio for a few days of work. Laying on the studio floor will come to be a painting of young lady laying in the cool grass under my apple tree. Bitter winds of winter may be just out my studio window but inside the model relaxes under my apple tree.  In this case I transport Jordan to the blue porch that is two counties over from my studio. Takes a bit of work to change the perspective and incorporate the garden into my world, but it's what I love doing. 

Annie, another of my models, I put into my dream living room with a cozy fire going in the fireplace. A bowl of popcorn handy and a good murder mystery, and Annie settles for the evening in my painting. Her nephew, Miles, joins her in the next painting. It's a bit of work getting them comfortable when they've never posed together before. Years of drawing from life lets me bring forth my dreams of life around me. Spinning yarns is what I do with paints.