I took the photograph this painting is from many years ago, but it is still one of my favorite images.
Karen, my friend in California, wrote and asked;
What is it about the South Pacific
that draws you to paint images from there?
There is nothing
short of stunning beauty in any direction you look from steep jungle covered
mountains to the clear blue ocean. Green dominates the landscape in every shade
from deep emerald to neon lime. Above and below the swath of crazy vegetation blue
competes with shades of teal and cobalt layered over ultramarine. Flowers break
up the raucous competition between sky, mountains and ocean with violent
bursts of candy orange, coke red, Hello Kitty pink and every shade in between. Samoans do not willingly fade into the background; they
embrace the rainbow in fabric and paint dressing themselves and their buildings
with condensed elements of the landscape as if to say "Ha, we'll show
you!"
The riot of color and light is inspiring. I take
pictures constantly. It is the perfect place to use the tubes of paint
that languish in the bottom of the box in more muted climates and a challenge
to make the paintings as bright as the landscape. Being here feels like a gift
that I want to return in kind. I was
told way back in college that painting what one is passionate about makes the
best paintings. But I can also say that being passionate about a subject seems
to make the paint flow more readily off the brush and feeling joy while
painting makes time fly by.
No comments:
Post a Comment