Reflecting on Spring

I Knew That Night

from series: Night Time Conversations

May 1, 2009

26 1/2" x 48"

Acrylic on Panel

Life had forced me to take a little break from blogging, but here I am, back with more to tell and new paintings to share.

I love Spring. I love the smell and freshness that Spring brings, but my Spring did not seem to last long, how time flies!

I kicked off my Spring with putting in a new garden and small flower bed. I thought how lovely it would be to paint my own flowers in the Summer. I have had fantastic dreams of plein air painting, that I have yet to live out. It doesn't help that I have a serious problem when it comes to Summer planning. For some reason I have a compelling need to fill up my calendar until I am writing along the margins. What is wrong with me! For some reason I get it into my brain that more day light means more time to cram in commitments. How unrealistic! What really caught me off guard was a small flood in my studio that put my art production to a crawl. Well, at least I am in motion!

The flood was caused by an unknown nail that was through the pipe that leads to the outdoor tap. When I went to water my newly planted garden I saw in the window next to the tap, water spraying down all over my studio from the ceiling. Oh, man did a few curse words spray from my mouth! That lead to a whole evening of ripping apart my studio and mopping up water. At least it was clean water. There wasn't much damage and hardly any damage to the building, thank goodness. I had built up some temporary shelving for my canvases that was made out of thick cardboard and this cardboard ended up saving my paintings by absorbing most of the water.

So now my studio is still in this state disarray, but I see this as an opportunity. I have recently received some hardware to build some counters and shelves, so now I just need to find the time to build and reorganize. When I do get a couple of free hours I dig out a place to paint instead of cleaning up or reorganizing! But can you blame me I am a painter that needs to paint!

Now for the above painting. I must thank the Allied Arts Council for inviting me to give a live painting demo as apart of the entertainment at their Decadent Dessert Gala fundraiser, where I painted this painting. That event lead to a picture of me painting this painting published in our local paper. I really fed off of the crowds overall buzz that night. It helped to give this painting energy and life. I painted this in acrylic paint because I knew that people would be eating and I was unsure about the quality of ventilation in the building. I personally find acrylics less aromatic. Not to put down oil paint because I absolutely love the smell of oil paint. It makes me sigh and I feel like I am home when I smell it.

Well now that has sent me into day dreaming about oil paint. That alone inspires me.