Intermission
From my earliest years, I have had a great love for the dance form of ballet. The ethereal, fleeting, elegance of the dance with its power to lift beyond the mundane has always captured my imagination. As a child in summer lessons at the art museum, I remember being placed before Degas’ ballerinas with pastels and paper to imitate some iota of his genius and soft rendering of the ballerina. He won my admiration then, for his art and his same fascination with ballet. This ballerina is a sketch for a larger piece, and I was working out design elements of darks and lights. She is awaiting her return to stage.
Tulips
After painting something that takes much concentration, I enjoy working a free and impressionistic image, and usually flowers fit the bill. I cannot imagine anyone not liking tulips. Among the first messengers of spring, they nod their cuplike heads in the breeze, and they are always fun to paint. These are painted on a beveled, oval-shaped canvas, a nice invention for the occasional frameless painting.
Sentry Post
I have returned from a mission in the Philippines with rich experiences and images. This is the side of a restaurant called Luis’s in Balanga, Bataan of Luzon. Guard houses protect most properties, and this attractive booth drew my attention since it was attached to the business and and part of the architecture. The hot color is typical of the paint choices of the people, and it reminds me of how hot it could get in the tropical country!
Happy Handles
The softer muted colors of this little pail family drew me to paint them. Generally, I am attracted to grayed and softer tones, but currently what comes from my brush is very colorful. I am using a specific set of warm and cool versions of the primary colors at the present time, and I have not yet finished exploring possibility with them. This little scene reminded me of mother instructing her offspring of proper manners for young pails.
Supplication
This is a small study of placing dark and light, warm and cool patterns in preparation for a larger work. Her poised loveliness and the traditional clothing of Spanish influence on this young woman of the Philippines captured all my attention. I had to try to put her grace into paint. The larger work will be shown in a later posting.
