My acrylic painting of Claude Monet’s “Water Lily Pond, Harmony in Green,” with a red rose from our 25th Renewal of Marriage Vows on the left, and the bow John made from a pine tree in our back yard in our old forest 25 years ago.
When we retired here, I decided that I would try my hand at painting. The last time I painted was in Mrs. Weed’s Junior High School Art Class. I remember painting Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers,” which he painted as a series in 1887 to for a triptych which symbolizes gratitude. I am very grateful how it came out. It was the first painting I did to get back into painting. But before painting his “Sunflowers” seen on the right, I thought I’d better try painting how sunflowers might move in the wind, as seen in the painting to the left. I just decided I could do it, and the following happened. Maybe not gallery worthy, but at least recognizable.
Then I decided to try painting pictures I saw online. I loved this full moon picture with trees and clouds eerily coming across the face of the moon.
Next comes daffodils on the wind on a hard canvass-covered board.
In the process of working with proportions within the paintings, I decided to block out, in my mind’s eye, sections of where things were placed, and figure out what was in the center top, and center bottom, and in each quadrant, because without a template of some sort, my paintings tended to sprawl all over the place. To work out this issue, I tackled Van Gogh’s “Cafe Terrace at Night,” on a Paris street.
Well, it is not perfect, but at least recognizable. This one was tricky with angles and curves. This is my interpretation.
Anyone familiar with the Wailana Coffee House on Ala Moana BLVD in Honolulu, will recognize this Paul Gauguin painting which is my replica of the huge such painting hanging on the wall between the coffee house where we often had breakfast, and the bar where we met friends sometimes on Friday nights. I would stand before this painting for an extended time every time we checked out of the restaurant. This is what I memorized.
The above and below this are done in colored pencils. When we lived in Honolulu for a couple years, I did not want to get any paint on anything and tried my hand at colored pencils.
Cape Cod is one of our favorite places to chill. The following is my interpretation of the scene from the upper parking lot at Fort Hill in Eastham, MA.
There is a path that connects this parking lot to the lower lot. The path is a picturesque trail through open grassland bordering the coast with multiple flats and inlets easing their way to the ocean, and which takes visitors to the huge boulder with knife markings in it from when Native Americans would sharpen their hunting tools.
If you continue past this point, you will make your way to the Ceder Swamp trail covered with planks to walk over it so as not to disturb the plant and wildlife there. We have seen frogs, snakes, and numerous birds singing their hearts out in concert for all who come by.
We live in a 400 square-foot house. I was beginning not to have enough room to hang more pictures, since John has hung all my pictures on all the wall spaces available. So, I decided to paint smaller pictures of flowers, one of my favorite attractions. They happened to fit perfectly on the side of our cookbook bookshelf.
This is a bible version of Mary meeting Jesus after his resurrection, painted on canvass-covered board.
One time, for a present for John, I painted him a picture reminiscent of the time we were in Dallas, going to a restaurant with a steel fence filled with blooming cactus coming through the openings. I believe this was done in watercolors on a canvass-covered board.
A bright orange sunset hangs over our workspace where we write our books, inspiring us with the brilliant colors of life.
If you are familiar with local painting classes, you might recognize these paintings I took under their direction. The one above comes from when we lived in Florida for one winter, happily near a painting class. Below you will find the local painting class from Massachusetts.
Hope you enjoyed the art show.
Namaste