Sometimes, things happen unexpectedly and finally come into clear focus. Yesterday, I went to my studio to rearrange artwork in the hall and clean up the clutter in preparation for the art crawl here at Dilworth Artisan Station. The previous afternoon I'd left a large 36”x48” canvas propped up inside the door, and when I turned on the studio lights it announced:

         “I'm finished...that's it, no more!”

Well, you might be thinking that the painting was suggesting it was time to take it to the dumpster. If you only knew the evolution of this piece, you'd be wondering why I didn't do so months ago!

The truth is, the underlying layers showed a feeble attempt to capture the evening sunset on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Try as I might to stay loose and free, the composition was not balanced, the colors were not pleasing, the clouds were not believable, the mountains and trees came across as flat and lifeless. Putting the canvas aside for several weeks - one day, I just marched into the studio and said “Enough of this!” With a bold move, I took a paint roller and swiped across the entire canvas with lighter colors and wiped out the original image.

Using a limited palette of yellow, magenta and phthalo blue + titanium white, gray and burnt umber – the color combinations become unlimited! After this layer dried, I playfully brushed black paint in marks and swirls across the canvas. A few days later, I switched to another palette of phthalo green, hookers green, and cadmium orange + white/gray/black. True to my background in art therapy, “playing” (the operative word) with color combinations is life-giving for me.

So back to yesterday, when the canvas spoke “I'm finished” - coincidentally, a studio mate walked by and said, “That piece is finished.” I took it outside and photographed it, painted the edges, and wired it for hanging. Today I'll varnish the painting and hang it in my studio, just in time for the art crawl.

Perhaps this piece originally was mirroring something in me that's been flat and lifeless and sorely in need of rejuvenation. The winter months served a larger purpose, a dormant period for ideas and dreams to be incubated.. During this season of Lent we're on the edge of spring, flowers are blossoming and trees are budding. There's "New Life" ahead!