Monday, July 2, 2012

New Growth

New Growth
24 x 24 inches
oil on canvas


It's fascinating to watch the seasons change, especially the more dramatic change from winter to spring, unlike spring to summer. The stark, scrawling lines of tree branches against the sky are now slightly blurred by citron leaves still in their infancy.  I'm lucky that the view from my studio showcases these changes, and I enjoy looking out that window every day.

This painting was created originally with a bright blue sky, but as I worked I changed the vantage point to place the viewer deep in the woods without a view of the sky, but instead creating a canopy of green above that mirrored the blurred forest floor.  I like how the crimson trunks against the early ultramarine background really pop, and the trees seem to sway a bit, as if celebrating a new beginning.

My own life has taken a bit of a new direction, and I'm pondering this notion of growth today.  My second baby is growing up, no longer a baby, and it's not nearly as easy to work around her naps any more.  I so love being a mother and spending lots of time with my children, but as an artist, the inner child often gets neglected.  There are many days lately that I have been feeling forced to choose. But to everything there is a season, right?

"If you are in a choppy period right now, the best way out is to make art. Art for the hell of it. Art for art's sake. Just for you."     -Julia Cameron, author of The Artist's Way

So there are many nights that right after bathing and bedding two active little kids, when all I want to do is collapse, I meander into my studio and look at my easel.  The next thing I know I've picked up a paintbrush and two hours have gone by and all is right in the world again.

I'm entering a new chapter in my life, just as my baby is entering a new chapter in hers.  New growth is a new beginning.

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