Figuratively Speaking - Grandma

8"x10"

This was painted from a photo taken 42 years ago.  I can easily pull up that number because it was an important year for me.  The baby is my oldest son, my first born.  It was taken at Thanksgiving so he was 6 weeks old.  He was a big baby, well over 9 pounds.  We make them big in our family.  The lady in the photo is his grandmother.  What a beautiful lady she was.  She loved kids and nature and was truly kind.  I am writing this about her in past tense because she just passed.  Painting this was good therapy, but hard to do.  I really wanted to capture her likeness and her personality.  That Thanksgiving was both unusual and special.  We were hippies.  My son was born at home.  We hosted my husband's family and many of them came, including his Uncle Chuck and his 3 boys, and his sisters.  We were not shy about our hippy ways including being vegetarian and smoking pot.  The family was amazingly cool about the whole thing.  We had a wonderful time and I really remember the closeness I felt with his family and all our hippy friends who came to celebrate with us.  We will miss you Joan.  Thank you for loving my children, your grandchildren and your great grandchildren.

Figuratively Speaking - Deep Thought

5"x7" oil

I want to paint the kind of paintings that are so intriguing that you fall into them over and over and don't get complacent or tired of looking at them.  I realize that this isn't always going to happen, but it is nice when it happens once in a while.  Interesting shapes that illicit memories or feelings will do it.  The painting above that he is looking at is like that....a summer scene on a lazy day when you are just kicking back with your good buddy, sitting on the grass.  Maybe you'll both go fishing later on.  It has a nostalgia creating narrative.  Abstracts can do it too without the narrative.  The colors and shapes and lines swirl around in infinitely interesting ways, sometimes looking like one thing, sometimes like another.  I want to live my life like that!  I want to find what makes the day worth being alive and hold on to that for a moment, then come back later to find another reason or feeling that is interesting, fun, curious, sweet, whatever. I want my brain power to grow a little bit and my body to feel its own strength and flexibility.  I want what I eat to make me feel energetic and enthusiastic.  I also want to get a good night's sleep...so I think I will go do that now.  Go Figure!

Figuratively Speaking - Making Connections

8"x8" oil

I am working on a portrait and trying to take it slow and do it right.  It comes and it goes.  I think I am relying on detail to improve it and I know you have to get the major shapes right first and leave the details to the end.  A stone sculptor chisels away chunks of stone and saves the details for the finish.  A cook focuses on the main dishes and saves the garnishes for last.  The point is made.  Today was a dreary, rainy, bone chilling day and it was the warmest day of the winter.  Give me cold temperatures and lots of snow and I am a happy camper.  People who experience these kind of winter  days have a hard time believing colder temperatures and snow is preferable.  It is drier and beautiful and there are numerous ways to enjoy the snow.  Today was a test of my endurance.  I was so unmotivated I actually caught myself thinking I wished I had a job I could go to!  Geez...it is suppose to be frigid tomorrow night.  I can't wait!  Go Figure!

figuratively Speaking - Geraniums on the Window Sill

11"x14" acrylic

I had a busy day yesterday, running from one event to another to make sure I arrived on time.  I miss judged and ended up getting to the potluck an hour early.  It was at a gallery, so I just helped set things up and waited to see others come in.  It gave me a different perspective.  Since I had been waiting, I was ready to welcome those who came in, introduce them to new people, get the conversation started....then before the event was in full swing, I had to leave for a different commitment.  I was so focused on time that I forgot to eat (isn't that the point of a pot luck?).  I went to a concert of a classical oboist.  That was new for me.  He was a young man who along with his piano accompaniment (another talented young man) wooed us into an inspired but relaxed state with the melodic singing of his instrument.  Then we dashed home to catch the fourth quarter of the Patriots game.  That was a shift I wasn't ready for.  We were hungry, cold (the theater was cold) and the game was anxiety producing.  I ate while watching...eating too fast....eating too much...putting food into a nervous stomach.  Bad plan!  It is not unlike painting sometimes.  Feeling rushed and doing too much without thinking it through can lead to a disaster.  I am trying to slow down and make more careful decisions.  Sometimes though, after having raced through to a mess, I can regroup and pull it off...very much like the fourth quarter of the football game.  It is a good thing the Super Bowl is in 2 weeks and it will all be over and I can release myself from this crazy obsession.  Go Figure!

Figuratively Speaking - Little Cook

6"x6" oil

Everyone should daily have someone who looks over the shoulder and smiles adoringly at them.  Would the world not be a better place?  This little one should get the prize for a winning smile.  That is what caught my attention and made me want to paint it.  I hope looking at it makes you want to smile!

Figuratively Speaking - Sunflower Sunset

4'x6' acrylic

Right before I had shoulder replacement surgery I started this painting.  I usually do tiny little paintings but I chose to do this one 4'x6'.  I wanted to have something momentous to work on with my left arm as my right shoulder recuperated (I finished it with my dominant arm).  I had been requested to paint sunflowers so the decisions for this painting started with that.  Then I decided it would be about patterns and I wouldn't obsess about details.  I wanted to include the green mountains which I painted green (clever, aren't I?).  I wanted a dramatic sunset so I could get some purple into the sky and also repeat the yellows and oranges.  It is simple and really a fun and lovely painting so I am happy with it, but I am even more happy that the recipient is thrilled with it.  It met her criteria and expectations.  It is an honor and a privilege to be able to spend my time making others happy while I am doing what fulfills me.  I don't have to be brilliant or clever or perfect....I just have to keep trying, keep learning and pay attention.  The paying attention part is really important....but that is another story...Go Figure!

Figuratively Speaking - Memories of Joan

Our family got really exciting and happy news this week.  We also got really sad news.  We were and still are, on an emotional merry-go-round.  The painting above is one I did from memory of my backyard. It reminds me however of my mother-in-law, from my first marriage,  who passed away.  She lived on a beautiful piece of property in Michigan and loved to be out in the woods or on the pond more than anything.  I am inserting a wonderfully written and heart felt response one of her granddaughters, Claire Wood,  posted on Facebook. 

"My grandma, Joan Davis, passed away this weekend. She was the strongest person I have ever known. I have been writing down my memories of her because I don’t want to ever forget how unique she was.

As a young girl during the depression, she owned two dresses and slept on the porch of a two-room cabin. She and her siblings canoed across a lake to get to a one-room schoolhouse each day. She learned to forage for berries and other edible plants from her mother, something she did her whole life. I will always remember when she made watercress sandwiches straight from her creek.

She loved learning. She graduated from school early and went on to college at 15 or 16, rare for a woman in those days. She became a teacher and later a school psychologist.

She raised six children, on her own part of the time. She went through her share of hard times in life, but she was resilient and a survivor. She lived alone on 80 acres for 40+ years, chopping her own wood well into her eighties. She savored her solitude, and loved nothing more than spending all day outside in the woods."

Figuratively Speaking - The Swimmer

                                                               To Purchase Go HereIt seems like almost the whole country is in a deep freeze.  The definition of that depends on what is "normal" for you in your local.  One of my sisters is keeping the towels close by her heated outdoor pool for the unusually cold weather.  Another sister drove to her swim club in a crisp -6˚ morning.  That seemed pretty surreal to her.  One thing you can tell from this post is that I have sisters (several more) and we like to swim.  Swimming is big in my family.  My nephew is currently undergoing the intensely rigorous Coast Guard Rescue Swim program in North Carolina.  He is about half way through and his original class of 16 has dropped to 3. His brother is working hard at OSU and a big part of that is his swimming.  He is an Olympic qualifier and has broken numerous records at the school.  My mom instilled a love for swimming in us and she continued to swim almost to the end of her life.  She was an artist too, but that is another subject.  I hope you are staying warm and enjoying the things you love to do.  Thanks for putting up with my bragging...Go Figure!