"Wet Feet"

"Wet Feet" 24x18 Oil on Canvas

One of the most powerful pieces in the original exhibition, you can almost feel the water lapping around the feet of the pink chair. This painting took a lot of preparation in laying it out. The ratio of water to chair seemed incredibly important to me. I measured canvases until I found the perfectly proportioned one I used. Later, considering cropping it, I found that my care was wise. The piece lost all its power when the water to chair ratio was different.


The painting was done from a photo taken at the end of an awesome boat ride on a pontoon boat at Desert Lake Resort, the kind of dreamy, all the time in the world kind of day. My cousin Bill drove the boat, his wife Marnie made the lunch, and "Mom" held the towels. We looked for loons, picnicked and swam in a cove off the boat. It was a perfect day. The title of the piece came to me out of the blue and for a while I have wondered what it meant. I thought that perhaps it was because both Mom and I have suffered from painful feet, which would have loved having the cool water wash over them. But a gift of understanding came from Barb Bodengraven, a writer, who said that the chairs arms were "open to whatever treasures the incoming tide will bring". Yes. That's it! My mother had experienced the joys of the day with us and took that same openness to all of the events her life would offer. She just jumped right in at every stage of life.

Traveling Again

A plein air bunch of paintings coming up!

I've been working in the studio for a while, but next week, I'm getting out. Mia Lane is coming to paint with me and we are going to go plein air on the North Shore of Boston and down to Cape Cod. Mia is a Canadian artist who is known for her awesome animal paintigs and who recently has moved in some different directions. She took one plein air painting and created a whole show from it, gathering new ideas. Check out her website @   http://www.mialane.on.ca/
I met Mia this summer when we visited my cousin Bill and his wife Marnie in Canada. Mia ia Marnie's sister-in-law. Bill and Marnie started the very popular and wonderful campground, Desert Lake Resort, now run by their daughter. Visit the campground site at http://www.desertlakeresort.on.ca/ and see just how cool it is, and beautiful, too.

We had a wonderful time there taking "Mom" on the pontoon boat when we toured around, looking for loons.

I will be putting my pink chair in the car and taking it on-site again as we paint together. I'll let you in on what is happening later in the week!