Sunday, April 4, 2010

Emu Egg and Shells


Thank goodness spring has arrived.  This winter was difficult and I did very little art work aside from my class with Mark Henry.  The snow came and stayed  with a grand total of about 50 inches at the mountain house. After totaling my faithful old 2002 Trailblazer in one of the snows, it seemed that staying put indoors was the best option for me.  Much of my time was spent cleaning out papers I have moved around for the past 10 years, closing my studio in a leased office space, and setting up studio space in each home. 

My February trip to FL to see my darling grandsons ended with all of us sick and my recovery from a respiratory virus that took weeks. 

The one piece of art that took a lot of my energy through this endless winter was a still life of dried hydrangeas in front of venetian blinds.  It could only be painted on sunny days because I wanted to capture the light shining through the blinds.  And the pesky hydrangeas just never looked right, so I put it on hold. 

This past Wednesday evening I drove to the mountain house with the intention of resuming my art work.  The Emu Egg and Shells occupied my afternoons.  My mornings were spent working on The Old Poplar Tree painting that I sold last fall to a dear friend.  At the time she bought it there was one section of the painting that was just not up to par so she allowed me to keep it to work on over the winter.  It is much better at this point.

Now about the Emu Egg and Shell painting.  It is by no means finished.  One way to paint a still life is to begin with a very accurate monochromatic underpainting.  That is what I did on the three afternoons for a total of about nine hours painting time.  It will now dry for a week or so and then I will paint the color.  Hopefully you will see a finished painting by the end of April!

The second day of the new year I read the following quote by Anne Morrow Lindbegh:
One cannot collect all the beautiful shells on the beach, one can only collect a few. 

This beautiful quote has become a personal new year's resolution about making choices and to honor it I am painting sea shells.  In the second photo you can see a shelf under the still life set up that is covered with shells from my life time of collecting.  The shells in this painting were  most likely found on St. George Island.  The emu egg was procured by my daughter, Katie, from her friend, Amanda.