White Barn in Snow
It's been 60 degrees or more every day this week- I suppose that winter is over.
Phooey.
I was hoping for one more snow. I've had a lovely time painting such beautiful things. With all due respect to the man, I am not an Andrew Wyeth kind of painter. He was a superb tonalist. I'm a _______ colorist. (I'll let you supply the adjective.) I love love love the creamy white covering of snow over stark fields and lawns. And those blue and violet shadows! Well, you know how I feel about cast shadows. (See January 2010 blog.) And even on an overcast day with no shadows it's so much fun to do a piece that is mostly negative space. (Negative space is the area of a drawing or painting that is around the subject/object, not the subject/object itself.) I like a bit of abstract composition in my realistic paintings and so this was working really well for me.
And, now its all melted away. Kaputski, as my husband Ed would say.
Phooey.
Spring brings warm weather which is very nice indeed, of course. But it'll be weeks and weeks before we get any leaves on those trees and things look anything other than well, like a stark, Andrew Wyeth tonalist painting. Thank goodness for pine trees. I don't know what I'd do to anchor a composition's darks without them in such a season. Everyone thinks, "Spring! Flowers and colors and fluffy clouds in bright blue skies!" They're wrong I tell you. Early spring is T.S. Eliot's "April is the cruelist month..." because everything feels warm and fresh but looks bleak and grim. Oh, the irony.
On the other hand, if kaputski with weather is anything like Ed's kaputski when referencing that this one, this one is the very last, yes! the very very very last cigarette he'll ever ever EVER have...well then, maybe we'll have another flurry or two before its all over. Old habits are so very hard to break.
But, then again its always been difficult for me to say goodbye to one season before settling into the next one and the challenging motifs it will bring me. I like change. I'll enjoy the spring season. Ed is nearly perfectly kaputski with cigarettes. We'll get through this together...
Oh, what the heck: Happy Spring!
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