Tag: oil painting

Evening by the River

I can’t believe that in my pandemic year of taking two daily walks – mostly down by the Potomac River in Piscataway Park – I only now have realized that it can be a lot more dramatic if you go late. Maybe the fact that that park closes at dusk has something to do with that. But if you park outside the gate, you will not get locked in. I took a great photo in the evening hour that I thought would make a good painting so I did it. This is the first time I looked at my notes since the cloud painting workshop I took from Sara Linda Poly just before the pandemic,  so I referred back to them and tried to do something like we learned in the class.

My niece informs me that “Golden Hour” is a thing, and it is now a fad to do selfies in Golden Hour too!

Lona

Fill My Cup Again, This Night Will Pass, Alas

“Britain Turns to Drink” ran the headline recently in the Daily Mail. I have a feeling that they are not alone, so I wanted a painting featuring alcohol in my pandemic oeuvre. I have to say that I, too, have found myself imbibing somewhat more than usual. That said, I will point out that there are also other healthy ways of coping, like good diet, exercise, meditation, strengthening connections, and creative activity. The painting features my niece, who is really good at what I was trying to capture. In the execution, the title that kept going through my mind was ‘Practice Painting Glasses’, but later I found a title in a verse from the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam:
The caravan of life shall always pass
Beware that is fresh as sweet young grass
Let’s not worry about what tomorrow will amass
Fill my cup again, this night will pass, alas.

Tribute to Insects

This morning I caught a news story about a study on insect die off. The study counted the numbers of insects that splat on car windshields, which the study shows have declined dramatically. This is not to be sneezed at since the implication points to an imminent collapse in the natural world that sustains humans and all life on Earth. Another study shows plummeting numbers of aquatic insects in streams. And the global warming news keeps getting worse and worse! Entities that are in power don’t seem to want to do anything. I just finished Robert Heinlein’s short story “The Year of the Jackpot”, which is online at the link. While not exactly comforting, it is a great 1952 short story of an actuary, who makes a hobby of tracking zany news stories, and correlates these stories in a way that points to an inevitable worldwide catastrophic climax. How prescient!

My tribute to insects, “Butterflies and Ironweed”, is below.

Peace Wish

There is a retired women’s Facebook group that I joined that suggested we all make a ‘peace painting’ to post on September 11. Mine is below.

As we approach another 9-11 anniversary, it’s  shocking to think that the Global War on Terror is now in its 18th year! I remember when continuous war was not the norm. When I was in college in 1970 we understood this and I believe we spent almost as much time on anti-war activities as we did on academics. That doesn’t seem to be the case these days. I was trying to understand why perpetuating a war that it not leading to any positive outcomes is seemingly impossible to stop and I came across this rationale on the antiwar.com website: “the alliance between defense contractors, retired generals, fundraising-crazy politicians, and a pliant corporate press creates a systemic and vicious cycle of warfare rationalization”. I’m looking for a chance to do some antiwar work, but given what we’re up against, I’m not sure what will work. In the meantime, I can paint a picture that includes a peace symbol…

Sunflower Maze

In my quest to get visiting grandkids to do something other than screen time I located a sunflower maze at Goldpetal Farms in St. Mary’s County. “We should do this,” I suggested, and luckily, they seemed willing enough. Later, I was rewarded by GD #1 saying, “Mazes are FUN!” when we were actually there walking the path under the towering flowers. Three was a good number to do the maze thing because every time we got to a branch of the maze, there was someone to break the tie if we couldn’t get consensus on which way to go. Yes, it was fun, but we sure were running into a lot of dead ends! And we drank up all the iced tea I had prepared! And it was HOT! We prided ourselves on not using the map, but it seemed to me we kept stumbling on places that we had been before. I spotted three teenagers clutching a crumpled bit of paper. Could they be using the map? I couldn’t tell, but the next time I had to break the tie about what direction to go I pointed to the way I had seen the teens go. Soon after, we made it out! At the exit they had a painting station so you could do a watercolor after your sunflower immersion experience. Later, back home, I was able to also complete a sunflower oil painting of GD #3.