Cows By the Lake - WIP

"Cows By the Lake" - WIP
24X36
Oil on Canvas

(Took the picture at 10:00pm and the light is awful...sorry. Will do better in the daylight.)

Nope...I didn't fall off the planet. The holidays are just as busy at my house as yours, and even afterward this year. We are having a new front door and new porch constructed at the front entry of our house. Because the weather is just so frigid, the construction guys are hit and miss with their schedule. And who could blame them? They can only work outside in the cold so long and are coming in short intervals. This is making for a long project that was supposed to be done the week after Thanksgiving. The work-stoppage around that time was due to torrential rains. Maybe I should re-think my ideas of construction next time and plan for spring and summer? Eh?? Ya think???

So in between holiday duties, taking care of things for the 92yr. old Dad, keeping all of us in food, clean house and laundry, tending to the two 4 footed friends, and the porch construction, etc., I have managed to get this far on a painting. It's the largest painting I have done to date. There is a reason for this. Some few years ago, as I love to do, I was shopping the local antique market and came across the most gorgeous painting of cows in a Texas landscape...as large as this painting, but framed in a classic gold frame. The price was way out of my reach. So it haunts me. I remember staying a very long time studying it. And I went back to it two or three times just to look at it. The cows were white, relaxing by water, sky, trees, and depth with detail to make me swoon. A very adept hand had done that painting. I do not remember the artist, unfortunately.

So now....there is a wall in my kitchen that is telling me it needs a landscape with cows in the manner of that painting. This is the beginning of my shot at it. I expect this to take me a good bit of time due to the size....and including the interruptions. (The porch is not close to completion and with the cold weather I expect this to go on for a while yet.) So far I have been working in the trees and just sketched in the cows and water area.

Stay tuned...

SC Landscape Finished

"Equilibrium"
16X20
Oil on Linen Panel
Available / A Natural View, Gaston County Art Guild Show at the Schiele Museum of Natural History
Dates: March 5 -April 4, 2009
Location: 1500 E. Garrison Blvd., Gastonia, 28054

That is.....if this painting gets into the show. (if not, you can buy directly from me) This is a judged / juried show and the requirements are stiff. We have a very qualified prestigious judge this year, Dee Beard Dean who is known for her beautiful landscape paintings and for founding the Plein Air Painters of the Southeast. In my estimation, this show is the best show of the year for the Gaston County Art Guild. I say that because I love the theme...all things in nature in North America. No manmade stuff, just raw nature.

If I were to describe my feelings about this painting, I would say it means "coming home" to me. It is a depiction of the type of scene I see from the road as my husband I drive home from somewhere...the farmland ready for planting, the pine forests in the background, the lush greenery surrounding the tilled fields, the Carolina Blue skies with some clouds kicking up, the sun streaking across the earth....all keeping me grounded and feeling balanced. That is why the title is "Equilibrium." Home is where the heart is....and this painting describes it to me.