"A little Piece of Heaven" is at Vegeria. It is a field of wildflowers not far from my home last spring.
I have just sent the twin of this painting off to its new home in France. "Paradise" (see below) is going to a dear friend from long ago at art school in Perpignan. We met on the first day of classes - she, a mother of a toddler and a baby, and I, a teenager. Annie's friendship made me feel at home in the "big city" and we enjoyed studying with Germain Bonel (www.arcadja.com/auctions/en/bonel_germain/artist/57751/) whose love of Japanese woodblock prints and cheerful spirit still warm my heart when I think of him. His favorite artist was Bonard.
"Tulips" has an unusual story. Last year at the Fiesta show on Alamo Plaza, I was told by a nice lady from Mexico City (who was also a tour guide) that I needed to paint tulips (not bluebonnets), because I was from Holland. That didn't seem to be necessary to me. Windmills, wooden shoes, fields of tulips... I thought about it a few times, but decided against it. Last December I saw red and yellow tulips at the grocery store and remembered helping someone who was painting a large bouquet of flowers and praising her for the very same tulips. Then it occurred to me that I had not helped anyone but had had a recurring dream. I understood I needed to paint those tulips and not the peonies (always reminding me of Japan) that I was tempted to buy instead... I started them while one of my tom cats was very sick and I had only an hour, so I painted fast and big, wanting to show the strength of the flowers opening.
This little still life was started at Edward Povey's studio in Wimberley and was supposed to be a study in tonal value. We were only allowed 4 colors (white, blue, brown and yellow) and the plate I had chosen was bright red... I still went off working on color instead of tonal value and Edward graciously let me get away with it this time... The changing shadows and lights brought out shapes in the plate that reminded me of native American pottery I saw in New Mexico last summer.
"Roses" has a long history, it was started after Aunt Katya's Icon in 2011 and was supposed to have an icon (angel Gabriel or Virgin Mary with child) in the middle. My husband liked the roses for their own sake and was convinced it would become too busy. The roses were painted in our backyard. The classical armature was a topic we studied with Edward when I took up this painting again last summer and it helped to make it more powerful.
