BLESSED RAIN

After a long, very dry summer, we finally got rain....buckets and buckets of rain! 

After the first good one, I drove to our usually bone dry Rillito River to see what I could see.

And then, of course, I had to paint what I had seen.  So, I did this little study on a canvas panel.

RILLITO FILLING
9 X 12 ON CANVAS PANEL

I have to be honest.  The water really didn't look like that.  It looked like this. 

 But who would want a painting of such a muddy mess?

People around here don't care if the water is muddy though.  They are just happy to see water running in our rivers.  Muddy or  not, it's still a grand opportunity for boys...big and small....to practice their rock skipping skills.

That little study I did told me it wanted to be bigger.  So, I did another take on the river scene.

MONSOON SHADOWS
16 X 20 ON CANVAS

I've been re-working some old canvases that I'd done bad paintings on.  This one had been a poor attempt at capturing all the luscious green grass in nearby ranch country after last year's good rains.  Green is hard, as any landscape painter will testify.  I think I made it better.

 TALL GRASS TIME

18 X 24  GALLERY WRAP CANVAS

I'll get these added to my website soon....and then.....I get to paint some more!

my website

Have I ever mentioned that I'm grateful for the joy of painting?

Oh...and I am also very,very grateful for all that blessed rain!

My love poem to rain.

Palo Verde and Ocotillo

Oleander and Bougainvillea

Writhe in ecstatic love dance with the wind.

Semi-sheltered ‘neath the corrugated tin roof of my patio

Watching rain pour off like strands of liquid silver

Face kissed by windblown mist

Outstretched feet bathed in liquid love.

When I first began painting, all I wanted to do was landscapes of my Sonoran Desert and the surrounding mountains.  I was…and still am….so enthralled by the special beauty of this desert…

the colors, sometimes subtle, sometimes surreal

the shapes…soft and feathery…. hard and jagged….

It was all those paintings which made me truly at home and comfortable with paints and brushes.

I still love to do landscapes, although I have seen a real change in my approach to them.  Now, I’m more after the ‘feel’ of the place than a true representation of it.

And, I have become much more interested in trying to either tell a story with my painting…or invite the viewer to create their own from it.

That has led to new subject matter.  I’m doing lots more still-lifes, especially those featuring old things…things which prompt long-forgotten memories…or ever present  ones…

.things which have meaning for me....things which I have loved for many years…..

….things which I never used in my life-time, but I can imagine my mother or my grandmother utilizing in their daily life.

Connections to the past enrich and shape our ‘present’, don’t they?

Painting, for all these years, has led to fun and frustration. 

… sadness and celebration….

But always, ALWAYS a source of great and abiding joy!

It is a gift for which I am truly and deeply grateful!