Totally Random Thoughts About New Work

This past month, with one exception noted below, has been devoted to drawing. The subjects have been my immediate environment; in that regard this genre is perhaps an amalgamation of still life and interior, or "chamber" painting.

The history of both these genres is incredibly long, and I know I won't do it justice here. What stays in my mind is that for many centuries still life painting was a way to showcase the artist's ability to represent natural and man made objects with extreme accuracy. Also, at times both still life and interior paintings were a vehicle to demonstrate the wealth and taste of a patron. There have been times, though, when still life was considered the lowest form of subject matter.

In the mid to late 19th century, when painters began to focus more on the effects of light as well as abstraction and expression, still life and interiors were apt subjects for experimentation, in no small part, perhaps, to the fact that they remain still and so remove one variable from the process.

I do like the still aspect of these subjects, but for me the joy that comes from drawing or painting them has more to do with celebrating the beauty in the every day. More than twenty years ago, when I was teaching a class on still life drawing, I asked a sort of rhetorical question about what the real subject of still life setups I had been offering might be. A student responded "home." She was right, for me at least, and for those of us who cherish home, this is sufficient motivation to draw or paint our surroundings.

When one has not been drawing for a while, it is not possible (at least for me) to pick it right up again, like riding a bike. It's more like trying to hula hoop, which was effortless long, long ago. Have you tried that lately? I wonder why drawing ability isn't well retained--is it the eye to hand connection, or perhaps the ability to focus on what is really there and see what makes an object look the way it does? A bit of both, I am thinking. The skill does eventually return (unlike hula hoop, which remains evasive).

I did do one painting this month, above. It was painted as part of a plein air event at Bowie Park, in Fairveiw TN as part of the City of Fairview's annual Nature Fest. It was a terrific event hosted by the Fairview Arts Council, and I am always grateful to be able to participate.