Just a Chair on a Porch

"Just a Chair on a Porch"
14x11" Oil on 1.5" gallery wrap canvas

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"The art of art, the glory of expression and the sunshine of the light of letters, is simplicity." —Walt Whitman

Stripped down to the barest necessities for guaranteed joy and contentment, give me a front porch with a chair to sit in silence and greet a neighborly morning knocking at my door. 

Coffee cupped in hand...sliver of melting moon fading...first chirps of the winged, chanting praise...cool stir of wind caressing cheeks...last stand of shrinking shadow...sunburst on the horizon, duck the first warm hurls of orange and gold rays. Morning has broken!

Photographers: Moira Fitzgerald & Yann Meersseman

The reference shown for my painting was another amazing image found on Vintage Colors blog. I was totally swept into the quiet stillness captured by the simplicity of the morning scene. However, as you can see, I went to town taking huge liberties with pumped up colors and values pulled from my imagination to match the intensity of the light and serenity that infused me. 

In this latest piece, I decided to challenge myself by taking a different approach. I usually try to match the same colors and values to what I see, but this time my goal was to try punching up the warmth and coolness of the light and hues for added mood and mystery. I have been working on this one for some time and hit many dead ends along the way. I had to wipe my canvas off many times and start over until I began seeing on my canvas what I was feeling about the image, rather than what I was simply seeing. 

For me painting is a war, a battle of push and pull, trial and error to the very end. I now stand with white flag in hand...a truce declared. I am at peace...and just wish I could plop into that inviting chair. 

Thanks for the visit,
—nancy

To see more of my art click here, or one one of these additional links: Online Gallery • Email  • Website  •  Graphic Design Studio • Saatchi Gallery • Fine Art America

A Portrait of La La's Garden

"A Portrait of La La's Garden"
16x12"
oil on 1.5" gallery wrap canvas

"Beauty surrounds us, but usually we need to be walking in a garden to know it. —Rumi

This latest painting is of a very special garden where I visited last summer. I was commissioned by my friend, Angela, to paint a spot in her mother, La La's, garden hugged in on all sides by adobe walls nestled into high desert hills overlooking the city of Santa Fe, New Mexico. It's here where homes magically and seamlessly blend into the rough dry, rocky backdrop like chameleons. 

Finding a scene to paint inside this hidden garden was hardly a problem as I meandering through lush gardens filled ever so delicately with a vast assortment of tall slender grasses, plants, and flowers, tucked in among shimmering aspens, pools and fountains of trickling water and rocks. Every element of the design was woven together into a patchwork of hue and texture that sparkled with light playing into shadow. 

I spent a good deal of time taking photos at different locations and times of day for reference, but finally narrowed my selection to this enchanted, mid-morning scene. The air was dry and cool with the promise of a bright sunny day as billowy white clouds churned up on the horizon. What finally won me over to this image was the beautiful path covered in soft dappled light that lured my eye through cool deep viridian shadows and then splashed onto the brilliant lime green walkway leading to the birdbath perched in full light of day. 

It was obvious La La's garden had been nurtured and developed over many years of hard work and tender loving care. I understood immediately why Angela loved this meticulously manicured paradise. This, the garden she photographed so frequently, had now become her garden. As Alice Walker said so perfectly, "In search of my mother's garden, I found my own."

Happy Mother's Day!

—nancy 

To see more of my art click here, or one one of these additional links: Online Gallery • Email  • Website  •  Graphic Design Studio • Saatchi Gallery • Fine Art America