Tallulah Quiet and Cold

With this post, I'm beginning a slightly new method for organizing each of my posts. I'm going to take seriously the title of my blog--"Bagatelles and Meanderings"--by talking a little bit about the painting or drawing, then talking about what I'm thinking about.

Here's the first go at trying that out.

Bagatelles:

"A Quiet Tallulah in January"

11" x 14" Oil on Canvas
For purchase information go HERE

I've commented before about the diversity in the Tallulah River. In some areas the waters are raging with such noise that you can't hear a conversation. In other areas, the waters are calm enough to hear the birds rusting in the trees. This bend in the river is one of the few quiet places along its route. But in January, most days on the river are chilly.

Meanderings:
I've always pondered what happens within the artist that makes a painting different from a photo. This morning while painting, I became aware--though not for the first time--that I was being guided by the scene.

As I squint my eyes, I am guided by the patterns, their sizes and directions and connections to each other. I sort out color variations--some cool, some warm. Then as I open my eyes, I see textures and edges. I become aware that my brush is figuring what it knows that will make those things happen.

So as artist, I've developed skills I spent a long time learning. While learning those skills I was also learning about composing. And all the time I'm learning how to become a whole human being. I'm still learning these things.

So this scene in front of me this morning was guiding me through a place I love, allowing me to see images and patterns from that place, to extract and filter them through the motion of my hands and spill them onto a surface.In other news: one of my new goals for 2009 was to find my voice in watercolor. To that end, I have been doing watercolor studies almost daily. Here's a little tree study done a couple of days ago. I might make it for sale later.