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How can one be out of sorts surrounded by the beauty of spring?  Yet I’m floundering and filled with doubt, again.  I’ve painted steadily these five or so years and now have this growing body of work that isn’t bringing a hint of fame or fortune.  It’s a great privilege to be able to paint full time but at some point one has to garner a wee bit of recognition and/or income to have sufficient confidence to continue.  Beyond the existential worries, there has to be a sense of the work being worth the cost and effort.

Having worked on a number of studies of spring blossoms and landscapes, I was pondering what to do next when I noticed several 30 x 30 canvases stacked against the wall, bright white surfaces just waiting to be covered with paint. Why not fill these from the imagination, I thought, as I slowly completed each canvas, all the while attempting to be as nonobjective as possible.   The first, which I’ve titled, “Balancing” evolved pretty smoothly.  The third, “Saved by Daisy” is quite fun, I think.  The second one hasn’t worked out so well because I was probably trying too hard to not paint a duplicate of the first.  So it’s in the failed/rework category.

Continuing in this abstract vein, I was quite smitten by the colors and shapes from Raoul Dufy’s gouache painting of Anemones.  Thus I attempted the following version of my own to capture the lightness and cheer of Dufy’s painting.  These latest abstract paintings were a needed diversion, still, I will always be more attached to realism because it is the beauty of nature that inspires me to paint in the first place.