painting – Welcome to Third Age Thoughts

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.

Path by the River

“Rivers know this: there is no hurry. We shall get there someday.” – A. A. Milne

I guess our main challenge in these days of pandemic is staying safe. But we seem to be equally challenged with keeping it interesting – despite the restrictions. This is where I am really grateful for all the Potomac River access paths we have in Piscataway Park, which I’ve taken to walking on a mostly daily basis. I’ve found it a little difficult to paint during this period, but after meeting with my art group I was inspired to haul my paints along on a walk and paint one of my favorite spots down by the river.

-Lona

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.

Frieda Kahlo as Muse

My first Frieda Kahlo inspired painting was about a decade ago when I found a cute little Mexican dress at the thrift store, so I posed and painted my little granddaughter as baby Frieda. More recently I caught my daughter wearing flowers in her hair and it inspired me to pose her for a Frieda inspired portrait. We couldn’t find any monkeys, but I thought her little dog Pumpernickel could fill that role. Why is it that Frieda is so iconic in art? It seems to me that suggesting Frieda is a good way to represent women’s inner strength and a certain amount of staying true to yourself. Both portraits are below.

Linda’s Garden

My friend Linda has a beautiful garden that I tried to paint twice this season. I say ‘tried’ because I think both times, I failed to capture the actual beauty that she created. Linda is the real artist here and trying to paint her work did kind of make me feel like a bumbling amateur. Both times I tried, it made me think of Plato’s denunciation of art as a copy of a form that he disliked for further removing one from the reality or truth of something. But, although I didn’t quite capture it, it seems like the counter argument to Plato is that at least the copy of the form will remain when the real form has long since withered. Also, in the process, I got to spend some pleasant hours exploring the ‘truth’ of the beautiful flowers.