Winter.
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| Endurance 1 36x60 inches oil on canvas |
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| Endurance 2 36x36 inches oil on canvas |
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| Endurance 3 36x60 oil on canvas |
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| Endurance 4 36x36 inches oil on canvas |
I paused, because that's what happens to me when the air gets cold, the trees are bare, and the lawn is hard and frozen. I pause, hiding from the bitterness, long shadows and icicles. I look for movies or shows to watch, wrapped in a blanket with a sweet warm snack.
And I paint, always, I paint.
Winter.
As 2022 began, I found a challenge. I had a seed in my heart that needed to bloom. In October of '21, my wife and I drove to the White Mountains on just the right day and I saw the epic color I had searched for since I first heard about it long ago and I needed to translate what I felt seeing that color, through my heart, my hand and my brush.
I did not forsee the five month challenge it became. Four panels, each one three feet by five feet, covered in small strokes of bold and vivid color, but that's where I went.
From across a briskly running river, the immense power of golden foliage struck out and buried me in color. I stood within the shadows along the shore, listening to the harmonies of rushing water, and on some level, the soprano of the high key of yellow.
The color and the sound blended like a well crafted stage set. Could see it, feel it, hear it, even, I think, taste it. I was enraptured. Every sense satiated and inspired.
After several attempt to express that nearly overwhelming moment, or two, I realized the only way I could capture and express what I felt was through scale with four canvases on four easels reaching from Wall to Wall enveloping my studio and my thoughts, and my emotion. My muse was singing like the cast of a Broadway musical.
So... Five days a week, sometimes more, for close to six months.
Here it is. .
ENDURANCE.
Links
Reminds me of a passage in this story, Chuck: when deer herd is fording a stream. Brief, but so evocative — and enmeshed with the ages. Somewhat like this magnum opus of yours! — MP F.
ReplyDeleteThe Hyperlink would help!
DeleteCan’t get it to transfer. Story is “The Hunter’s Wife” by Anthony Doerr, published in The Atlantic magazine in May 2001 (and in Doerr’s short-story collection, “The Shell Collector.”)
ReplyDelete