Hi there Subscriber! I hope your year is off to a fabulous start.
I used to hate winter. You see, I was spoiled after living in Puerto Rico where I could wear my swimsuit and ride my bike year-round. Or pick fresh fruit off the lush green banana trees in the back yard. There was a native poinsettia SHRUB that bloomed year after year with no special care from us, but unfortunately, I did not realize how special that was at the time. After moving back to the States, I wished we could just skip winter. Now, with many more years behind me, I've learned to love the starkness winter brings.
Actually, I love every day that I wake up...made even better now that I'm so focused on looking for beautiful moments that might make good subjects to paint. I love the way the winter sunlight casts long tree shadows across the bare land. The way plowed and barren fields turn lavender as they recede to the tree line. The crisp blue of a cold winter sky, and the magnificent mauves of bare tree tops when lit by the winter sun. These everyday occasions make for such great subject matter, but they are often overlooked. I didn't see them until I started looking for them with my new artist eyes.
When I first started painting, I looked for "things" I wanted to paint. Not any more. I now know that what I really like to paint is contrast. Dark against light. Warm next to cool. Bright beside muted. That contrast is what makes a painting work; without it, you've just got "mud". And that seems to coincide what I've learned about living.
It's easy to enjoy the happy times, the love we share, the success we've earned. And we dread the tough times, cannot wait for them to end. And some of those dreaded things never end, like losing a loved one.
But, as in painting it's the contrast of opposites, and the subtlety of the grays in between that let those moments of beauty shine. And they happen a lot more often than we may think. We just need to learn to be on the lookout for them.
