Reflecting on brokenness for a day.

more plein air association work today...grateful for the chance to get out there with other artists and paint. this one needs a little refining - done at the Rocky Bayou Golf Course in Niceville, FL. beautiful crisp morning. i need to strengthen the water reflections on the left hand side (didn't address them this morning, ran out of time) and maybe butter up the sky a bit.. the water is perfect - but its brokenness is a bit too reflective of how i'm feeling.

i can still pick up some hope and lightness in this painting though. hope that in the future, broken things smooth and blend out until they can't be seen or detected anymore. the background blurring.

time for healing and rebuilding, and I'm just going to see what the paint brings out in the next few weeks.

The Pilgrimage Series

I'm finding me back in my studio (and outside for the pourings) again. This is what life is feeling like - colors vibrant not dull, things ahead not seen, nothing awry or to be afraid of - just the fullness of life taken in with a willingness to let it be enjoyed rather than dreaded. I can't do this type of work looking at a tree. I want to leave it just like this - spontaneous and undefined, but I'll look at it again tomorrow and see what it needs. (See the ballet commission peeking out from behind it? I need to be working on that one, too.)

Paths and Woods (I can't see anything beyond today)

This morning I was back at Aunt Martha's Bed and Breakfast with the Emerald Coast Plein Air Association. What a treat it turned out to be with all the personal frustration going on right now. I'm back to doing the woods and paths for a while I think - or maybe just for today. This one is done with a lot of tonal variations between thalo blue and ultramarine. I left my box of paints at home on my doorstep so I had to force myself to use colors that I don't always pick up. These were in my "supplies" box: gamboge, ultramarine, thalo blue, blood red, galleria white (it was the only white I had, but it worked), a bit of lemon yellow, sepia, dioxide purple, and quinacridone magenta. I'll do some shaping up of a few areas and post the finished painting on the flickr page.