Every person has snippets of memories which appear and disappear like dreams evaporating at daybreak. Those fleeting thoughts and feelings can take us deep inside ourselves and reconnect us with the essence of what gives us true joy. Painting these memories can help us see and appreciate ourselves more clearly.

1

The first step of finding inspiration is finding something unexpected. The other day I was looking through my archives. I came across this pastel from 1978 and was surprised to find myself wanting to draw back into it! Curious as to why I would be ‘drawn’ to do such a thing, I brought the pastel downstairs to the studio to have a closer look.

2

The second step determines that the inspiration has merit ~ is that it captures your attention and has you wondering about it, more than a passing thought. The image reminded me of someplace my parents took me as a child. I remember going to a place called Make Believe Land. I must have been about five. I remember being intrigued by the woods behind the Wicked Witch’s house. I don’t remember where this painting came from ~ only that it feels just like being there again.

3

The third step honors The Source and moves forward with The Gift. Rather than drawing back into the pastel, I put a large canvas on the easel beside it. “Best to honor that place and time and move forward to the next place,” I thought to myself as I positioned it on my biggest easel. I began mixing paint, drawing the shapes onto a canvas which I had base coated with Caput Mortum Red with a bit of white and Cadmium Red mixed in. Caput Mortum Red is a dark earthy red, almost purple. When mixed with white, it gets a slightly ashy feel, almost lavender but neutral.

I began drawing with my brush, a little Cadmium Red with white and a touch of Cadmium Yellow to make a medium warm pigment to outline my shapes. Beginning with the tree in the foreground, I worked my way back through the landscape. As I did, I added bits of other colors along the way ~ much like I did with pastel thirty years ago. Then I scrubbed in some of the earthy solid shapes; the darks in the foreground, the mass of olive green in the middle ground and a little of the tree canopy. Then I drew in the cottage. I don’t really see it in the pastel ~ but I feel it there, so that’s where I put it.

I painted with oil paint, no medium. This keeps the painting from getting muddy. Because the canvas is toned with a deep red, everything I add to the canvas is tempered by that deep tone. You can see in the detail photo, how the intensity and hue of the color changes with each stroke depending on my touch and how much pigment is on the brush.

I continued adding colors, mixing them directly on the canvas ~ just as I would have done with pastels ~ letting the brush and the texture of the canvas do the work in response to how I happened to feel as I made each stroke.

And I have to admit, I felt like a kid again playing in the woods behind our house. Each time I touch this painting, I am transported to that special place in my heart where I am that little girl in the woods. I won’t try to say too much more about it here, as this painting is far from complete.