Fiery Sky
Oil on canvas, 30x30
sold
I have always loved painting skies. Blue and clear, dark and threatening, high and arcing and aching with the heat of summer, it doesn't matter. The sky is the frosting of the painting for me, really, and this sky is one of my best. I'm taking my sun-rings idea and freeing it up a little, channeling Vincent Van Gogh a bit, as well. I'm very excited about this idea, and am pushing it hard in the paintings I'm doing now. What do you all think about it?
I believe my love of painting skies started when my dad told me something that a painter had told him - that no one could ever prove that the sky he had painted was not the sky he'd seen. Understanding that had freed him, he said - and when I understood it, it freed me, too.
A few years ago, I mentioned my love of skies to my friend Candy. Ever since, she and I have taken a photo of the sky nearly every day, and shared those photos by email. We're in the third year of the project now, and it has become one of my touchstones.
When I'm painting, I am always tempted to leave the sky for last, the way I'm tempted to leave the frosting for last. But it's important to get at least some of the sky on the canvas while I'm putting in the land and the trees and everything else. All the colors influence each other, and so, much as I might want, I don't leave the sky for last.
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PETER AND I were shopping the other day, and I saw cookie-dough Oreos. Yes, Oreo cookies stuffed with cookie dough. I asked Peter if he thought that was maybe sort of cannibalistic.
"No," he said. "It's incest."
Made me laugh.
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FOR FOKS IN VIRGINIA, I'm in Arts in the Park in Richmond this coming weekend, May 2-3. The show is 11-6 on Saturday, and 11-5 on Sunday. The show is in Byrd Park in Richmond. I'll remind you all again, later in the week, and give you directions and my booth number.
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Dog of the Day
It's a mini Australian shepherd, whom I met in West Hartford Center last month. Want your pet to be the Dog of the Day? Send a jpg to me at carrieBjacobson@gmail.com
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A final thought
"I am seeking. I am striving. I am in it with all my heart."
- Vincent Van Gogh
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