"End to a Stormy Day"
Took me a long time to learn how to use my other senses when creating art. Most artists listen to music while painting. I've turned to listening to movies, foreign movies are the best for me. The rhythm of the words without knowing the meaning is a form of music. Rap is that way, but I prefer not to know the message. I like Paolo Conte's grave voice and the music that accompanies him, but the mix of voices in a movie alone is the part of foreign films I like best. The voice of a heavy smoker mixed with that of a child conjures up my own story which is what I do with painting. The mix of brush strokes is part of my telling my story. I am, after all, a story teller. My words are brush stokes and language comes from my palette.
I love stories with happy endings. Uplifting stories, so I use an uplifting palette. A dark painting on my easel usually means I am not in my happy place. Dark stormy skies in my paintings are usually accompanied by rays of sun light off in the distance, a stream of yellows leading me to hope, which is what I hope to find in all my art. Storms are cleansers. They wash away the dirt and dust from trees and fields revealing a rich array of colors.
Painting is my rain storm, doing my dark stormy paintings cleanses my mind of whatever is bothering me, it's my way of working out of a dark place. That ray of light often grows into a bright sunlit landscape. With the rain comes a smell of freshness adding a richness to everything and that includes my painting. Here the reverse takes place - instead of being inspired to paint, the act of painting does the inspiring. I bring the smell of rain into mind and slowly my dark place is illuminated. The day my mother died I worked my feelings out onto a canvas, the roses she so loved came to life on my canvas and I could smell them.
We need things to carry us through dark times I hope in some way my art lifts the veil of darkness from someone's eyes and gives them hope, or it simply brightens an already good day.
