This One is Personal

After struggling to put the final touches on the large canvas I mentioned in the last post, this piece ("The Future is Bright") flew from my fingers through my brushes on to the canvas. First, yes, the sky WAS this red. I am telling you, North Carolina skies are the most beautiful I have ever seen. And I have lived in some beautiful places. I haven't seen skies like this in New England, in the Midwest, in Maryland, Florida, Pennsylvania; nowhere except here in North Carolina.

Yes, you could argue that I did not have time to stop and gawk at the sky before I moved to Raleigh, as I had a full-time career, and two kids, and two dogs, and a husband to cook for, etc. That would be incorrect, however. I did stop in awe of many Carderock sunrises, and I was particularly enchanted by the golden beams of light that emerged through the trees and over mailboxes. Carderock was its own kind of amazingly beautiful--a Utopia both of natural beauty and special community. Nevertheless, no sunrise from Carderock could match the colors and cloud formations I see in Raleigh.

So, yes, this was the sunrise on a warm April morning a couple of weeks ago. I had the pleasure of capturing it as my daughter, S., drove us to visit the college she will be attending in the fall. This is a deeply personal piece for me because of the deep love I have for her and the challenges she has faced getting to this point. She has grown into a beautiful, smart, compassionate young woman and I am so excited for her to take this next step.

My work is generally softened and altered by the way I feel the colors should flow. I am not a Renaissance painter who had the unenviable task of recording the way things looked exactly before photography was a thing. I grew up with Claude Monet's on my wall (trite, perhaps, but the colors and feelings of nature he produced remain unmatched in my mind) and I like to create paintings that represent the way I remember them. This painting has a little hokey charm, from my perspective, I love the contrasting colors, and I love the evocation of a journey. 

Whatever journey you are on, may it be rewarding.