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Pure Joy!

9″ square mixed media on canvas paper

JUMP! Jump for joy! This image made me smile. It is a study for a commission. This painting took on a life of its own. It strayed wildly from the palette I chose for the commission. This image just didn’t want to be a beautiful neutral, it wanted to sing loud and clear! I used a Holbein acrylic color named “luminous opera” which has a much more poetic ring than “fluorescent pink.”

Please enjoy a celebration of pink paintings this month, in honor of breast cancer awareness. I paint for my friends and family who have fought the good fight against cancer, for their families, and for all caregivers who help along with the journey toward a healthy self (body, soul, and spirit). In my strokes of pink, are prayers of strength and healing.

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Spirit of Youth

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“April hath put a spirit of youth in everything. (Sonnet XCVIII)”
― William Shakespeare

8″x6″ oil on single oil primed Belgium linen. I bought a multipack of panels trying to decide which surface I like the best. The single primed linen really grabs the paint, it takes more paint to fill the tooth, which was perfect for this wet rainy painting.

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Puddle Dancing

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A rainy, dark scene seems appropriate for today, one with a bit of hope (only because I know how the story ends). So I painted a puddle dancer, a barefoot rain walker. I love the way the colors blended with my Portland grey underpainting. I also love the way this painting looks wet.

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“Puddle Person”

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I have always been a puddle person. I remember when I was 6 years old. My parents took me to Disney World, we saw the sights, watched the shows, and rode the rides. At the end of the trip they asked me what my favorite part was, “the puddles!” I answered. I had never seen so much car-free cement in my life (nor have I since). I can feel the jump, the satisfying smack as my feet hit the puddle, and then, the weird limbo as my feet displaced the water beneath me, and my feet hit the ground with a satisfying spray of water all around me. I am still a puddle jumper, and I try to remember how much I love them when my labrador-children run and leap for the shining ground, or trudge through the lowest spots after the rain.