Friday, September 4, 2015

House on a Hill, and the Studio Boat

House on a Hill
Oil on canvas, 6x12, $75
sold

This painting feels like a breakthrough. And it feels like something I've been heading toward for a while.

I stumbled on an idea when I was finishing another painting. I'd made a sky that took my mosaic sky idea (click here and here for paintings with good mosaic skies) and went one step further, when it occurred to me that I might be able to paint in a way that illuminates my belief in the interconnectedness of all things.

So I set out to make a painting that brings the sky into the mountains, the mountains into the fields, the fields into the structures on them, etc.

I love this little painting, and how it does manage to tie everything in together - or at least, in my eyes, it does. What do you think? Does it illustrate the concept? What do you think of it as a painting, without any further thought or meaning?

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Studio Boat 

LAST NOVEMBER, when I was in Texas between shows, I went to the Houston Museum of Art and saw a great show of Claude Monet's paintings of the Seine. It was fascinating to watch his painting style and his area of interest change over the years, going from very precise paintings of boats in the harbor, with every mast and piece of rigging intact, to the soft, blurry, impressionistic pieces he painted near the end of his life, when his style had changed and his vision deteriorated. 

An exciting part of the show was finding that Monet had a studio boat, a stable, covered craft in which he painted the shore, from the water. I have been hankering for a studio boat ever since! Do any of you have one? Have you ever seen one? I have found several sets of plans, and then saw this one (below) in an issue of a newsletter I receive. The letter was focusing on the houseboat behind the studio boat; I've written to the real estate agent who has that houseboat for sale, but I haven't heard back. 


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Dog of the Day
Saw this lovely Great Dane back in May, at the show in Richmond. He's a beauty! 

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A Final Thought

"Painting is the grandchild of Nature. It is related to God." 
- Rembrandt


2 comments:

Unknown said...

LOVE it! And my first thought, before reading the text, was, WOW, it makes the whole scene a single, cohesive tapestry, interconnected. . . So yes, it WORKS! Absolutely love it. And Monet's studio boat. And the gorgeous Great Dane. :) :) :)

carrie jacobson said...

Thanks, Ellen! It really is a breakthrough... and it sold! To a collector in Nebraska. Yay!