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Greetings,

Signs of Life 1

Signs of Life 2

The cold this January has, for large part, driven me inside to explore watercolor painting from my cozy, warm studio.  I found myself going again to images of aging buildings: in this case - doors.  Two paintings have evolved, each exploring 'signs of life', integrating winter vegetation with decaying doors and raising questions:  What is living and what has passed.  Will new growth emerge?  Where?  Are the crags and wisps of vines still filled with the life force upon which we all depend?  What sustains us.   Old doors are openings to our past.  Who went thru these doors?  What drove their living Spirit?  In what were they tangled?

The tree in the painting of the door with lace curtains was inspired, in part, by an apple tree in the yard of a friend.  She is a Master Basket Maker from the Penobscot Nation.  I pulled into her driveway to pick up a basket a few days before Christmas.  The craggy shape of the apple tree and its few remaining fruits struck me in its simplicity and strength.  As I painted the tree branch it became a dance in front of the old door.  Dried fruit punctuated its movement, and one golden apple gives witness to a living force.

The painting of the open door with vines began when I stopped to look carefully at a house which I have watched decay over years.  The painting 'Memories',  completed a year ago, started with an image from this same house.  This time as I looked at the building, I was amazed to find a strong brass door knob, intact and solid, even as the building around the door handle fell away.  The painting evolved from there.  The vines climbing over the door carry my hope that the Spirit of this slowly in-folding building will flourish again.

Memories

I did get outside to paint on January 3.  My friend Michael Vermette and I painted at Pemequid Light located on a peninsula  below Brunswick, Maine.  Typically we don't paint when the temperature is below 20 degrees.  As we left Hampden it was 9 degrees.  At Pemequid the temperature just broke 20 degrees with little wind.  The seas were calm but dark and cold;  the sky constantly changing.  Although I had planned to paint the stark, striated rocks of the area, I was pulled by the lighthouse.  

Pemaquid Winter Light

Thank you for your interest in my painting experiences.  I enjoy sharing my work thru these occasional newsletters.  If you are interested in seeing some of my work in person, two paintings will be at the Schoodic Institute Winter Festival, Winter Harbor, ME from February 9 to March 5.  For more information about the Festival click here.  Also, if you happen to be in Hampden and want to stop in to chat and look at some work, give me a call.  It is great fun to share and talk art!