I paint, I grow, I paint again.
I watch skies and sunsets every day. As my daughter Rory has gotten older, she’s joined me in watching the beauty unfold on the world’s largest canvas. So often I will hear her feet on the stairs as she invites me to watch the sunset from her west-facing bedroom window; “Have you seen the sunset?” Somehow our instinct is to invite others to see what we see, to share in the beauty and emotion of the moment.
That speaks to my motivation for painting as well.
I think one of the biggest mistakes we make is in trying to say too much, do too much, in a single painting. After hundreds of paintings, I have started to see paintings more like sentences, or even single words in an ongoing conversation. One painting is not a definitive statement of my identity as an artist, and by setting my art free from this burden, I can simply paint as a way of saying, "Look. Do you see what I see?"
This crocus painting is the continuation of a conversation started years ago, in my first crocus painting (and even years earlier than that, the first time I painted flowers).
My very first crocus painting.2001
A few years later, I painted the subject again, continuing the conversation, and now I continue with one more.
In one respect, I'm talking with my past self, reviving a memory and continuing the discussion. I love how painting past subjects honors what they have taught me and helps me evaluate my own growth.
“Inaugurating Spring” 2008
In another way, I'm editing my own work, articulating more cleanly the thoughts and emotions birthed in past paintings, with the hope that those who see my work also receive just a little more.
Crocuses for Watercolor Mastery, 2018
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