More snow on the way…

James Pond

Just for a few hours
I’d really like to sit on the porch
with my feet up
and almost all of the 15 layers of thermal woolen wear
laying in a pile to my right
and my snow shovel tossed into the weeds nearby
and feel the sun on my face
and have every joint in my hands be…not cold
and just listen to the birds
and the water lapping
on this shore…

pretty please.

 

 

And for the finale…

It has been a blast to post these images one day at a time and has forced me to learn the new website admin navigation and to explore worlds deep withing this machine that I am now using on a daily basis to lighten the load of the business side of the artworld. And it has been an opportunity to look at each painting as an individual entry in the larger show and remember what drew me to paint them in the first place. All good.

Over a year’s worth of work lined up for your consideration…and now we’ve reached the final painting.

I give you…

#18 – James Pond 92 x 48

There is a deceptively simple peace that comes from looking out over this pond. Peaceful in that air and land and wind and water come together seemlessly and you can melt away the burdens of the world in one rustling of a leaf. Deceptive in that there is so much going on in those elements that your calmly gazing self might be the only still thing around.

All manner of wildlife are in constant motion. The water never stops. The leaves and clouds dance around you like fairies. And the chorus of birds and bugs and lapping waves are gentle background to it all.

But my favorite part of this corner of the planet is that it changes. I have spent many weeks here and no two reference photos are the same. It was part of the challenge in choosing to paint this spot. Which season? which sky? which time of day? The blue of that water can be fifty different hues in one given hour. The constantly revolving collection of cormorants on that single rock alone can make one’s brushes spin.

To settle on all those choices is to make everything…come to a …stop.

And then, once stopped, to try and give each element an accurate rendering and slowly build the layers of background melting into middle distance and finally detailed foreground and tease each strand together and hope that they vibrate as a whole and at least give the hint that all is in motion.

I hope that you have enjoyed this adventure as much as I have. And I hope to see some of you this Sunday at the Red Barn as we unveil the 2012 Granary Gallery show.

Thanks for checking in and, as always, thank you for your support !

Now go outside and play.