I’ve been doing this for a long time. I went into the marshlands as a kid with my sketchbook and later my paintbox , touching the beautiful details with brush or pen, I drank in the landscape’s beauty. It’s an active form of loving: trace the luminous contour of that backlit tree. Follow the curve of that branch in ink. Mix the color of the sky, reflected.
During the SAMA Ligonier Winter Paint-Out last weekend, I joined a group of around 20 plein-air painters. It’s been more than 6 years since I’ve painted in the field. But I signed up, organized my gear, made a few practise paintings around town, and showed up last Thursday ready to go.
Day One: 35 degrees and pouring rain, low visibility. Why do this on a day you can’t see the mountain! I took a lot of photos.
Day Two: Forties and partly sunny. The Laurel Mountain spread out in soft blue-violet-grays, and all morning I traced her curves onto my long canvas. I wanted to catch the pale gold undulating fields, mauve-grey stands of forest, the silver dash of road disappearing over the hill. In the afternoon, I started another canvas at a nearby bend in the road.
Day Three: dawned cold but clear. I returned to develop both paintings further. At day’s end I wanted to rework parts of both canvases and add more detail. But I asked my art pals and they were unanimous: Leave them! I was uncomfortable, but I’ve learned to listen to their wisdom.
Day Four: On Sunday, I submitted two paintings I am proud of, and both were juried in. I met amazing artists and art lovers. Throughout Westmoreland County, I found stunning vistas hidden in plain sight. A few residents stopped to see what I was doing, and was invited back to make more art.
In the past 5 years, I’ve been in the throes of change, healing and self-reinvention. I’ve been painting in the studio, in acrylic media, larger and more abstractly. Am I still a landscape painter? Yes, it seems so. Painting from life feels like touching the world with my brush. It’s like coming home.
On that snowy January day when I decided to pursue this project, I took a chance. And I stepped through a doorway into a place at once brilliantly new yet completely familiar.
title comes from this song: Harmonia’s Dream
Art-Spirit-Nature 