Updates to Adirondack Repose

Now and then, a work in progress will talk back to the artist and demand change. This happened to me with “Adirondack Repose.” I wanted to create a space where the viewer of the painting could be at peace and have time to contemplate the amazing universe. I began with a straightforward idea – an Adirondack chair facing outward to an open horizon framed by a few trees; red-roofed cabin in the woods off to one side. But once the first paint hit the canvas, it started to talk to me. “Did you really think you could use that much yellow? Exactly where does this pathway come from – or is it a small brook? Is the water flowing out of the lake or to the lake?” I kept seeing things to modify; so with each new idea, I added more paint.

The risk In working this way is that you can end up with many un-planned bumps and ridges on the finished canvas. They present themselves as flaws to the person who may want to purchase some art; in my view, however, the bumps and ridges that poke through the new paint are like the scars we all acquire in life. You may have some episode that caused you pain, and now you have a wound. You try to cover over those painful experiences, but the scars never completely go away. They are now yours!  So instead of hiding them, make them part of who you are! 

And consider who you know who might like to have this painting for their own contemplative soul work!