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Listening to Spring

10″x8″ pastel on sanded paper

“I am going to try to pay attention to the spring. I am going to look around at all the flowers, and look up at the hectic trees. I am going to close my eyes and listen.” -Anne Lamott

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My impression of Evening Primrose

10″x8″ pastel on sanded paper

There is beauty all around us, often mixed up in things that are not very beautiful. I paint exactly how the flowers feel, without the power lines, or houses, or cars. As I enjoy this year’s wildflowers I remember this quote from Monet:

“Try to forget what objects you have before you – a tree, a house, a field, or whatever. Merely think, ‘Here is a little square of blue, here an oblong of pink, here a streak of yellow,’ and paint it just as it looks to you, the exact color and shape, until it gives you your own impression of the scene before you.” -Claude Monet

Appreciate the beauty, ignore, or deemphasize the rest: That might be good advice to apply beyond landscape paintings.

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Winter is Dead

10″x8″ pastel on sanded paper

“She turned to the sunlight

And shook her yellow head,

And whispered to her neighbor:

“Winter is dead.””

-A.A.Milne

Started this painting with a beautiful underpainting to establish lights, darks, and mood.

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Twilight – a time of pause

10″x8″ pastel on sanded paper

“Twilight – a time of pause when nature changes her guard. All living things would fade and die from too much light or too much dark, if twilight were not.” -Howard Thurman