"Everybody knows a work of art takes at least an hour!" Lucy to Linus, (Peanuts)

FineArtViews Painting Competition - Twice in the Fav 15%

http://canvoo.com/boldbrush/badge/13203 three times selected for FAV15%, Fine Art Views Bold Brush Painting Competition

Friday, May 14, 2010

An "Only" Tulip

We have every year in our garden a single tulip that appears among a group of Daffodils. The former owner of our house had planted this section of the garden so I don't know the history behind the "only" tulip but there is something about its yearly appearance that strikes my fancy. It seems unconcerned about its solo life and has a defiantly intense magenta colour that stands
out brilliantly in the crowd of yellow and green around it. I began this painting of it about two years ago and then put it aside when other things were demanding my attention. It began with some lethargy on my part but I saw it behind some other canvases in my storage section and pulled it out last week. I needed a break from the intense concentration I have to find for my figurative works so it has become a sideline entertainment. No pressure to get it "right" or to have it finished by a deadline or thinking about its salable attributes - just fun and play. Yesterday a couple of my art group friends drove up the hour and a half from the Courtenay area to visit and work in my studio. This tulip seemed the perfect piece to work on, allowing me to socialize and
and experiment in an easy balance, and it fit the almost perfect day surrounding us, with sun, a few puffy clouds, soft breeze, and quiet chatter from birds and other wildlife in the nearby woods.
What a magical day we had, and a lingering lunch on the deck, which my hard working husband stopped to join. And there is a connection I didn't suspect at first with this "only" tulip - I am
an "only" child and sometimes have lamented that single state, but I've always managed to surround myself with lovely "daffodils" too, friends who are different and yet so much the same, a family of artists who manage to find each other, and "bloom where they're planted."

4 comments:

  1. Hi back Karen!... Glad that "I" came to visit sfter reading the comment that "You" graciously left at my site.

    What a beautiful combination of painting and writing!Both are so expressive and honest!

    "You" have revealed much about your artistic experience and talents... but that has been very obvious in all of your previous work as well.

    What "I" found more refreshing... was that "You" revealed a "morsel" about your own inner Self... and the "only child" feelings that you have carried along.

    "I" have two brothers and a sister... but "I" can identify with "You" the only child in the sense that I have always spent a lot of time thinking and being alone even with family all about me... by preference. Being an artist demands that we do spend time "alone"... in our search and in the act of creating.

    But isn't it wonderful... that we can choose to reach out and share our ideas and feelings... across vast distances.... and yet "bloom where we're planted"? I love that thought!

    Good to hear from "You" Karen!

    Good painting!
    Warmest regards,
    Bruce

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  2. Hi Karen, thank you for visiting and for the wonderful compliments on my blog. Don't you just love those no-pressure paintings? Sometimes I feel they are my best because I'm so relaxed when I paint them.

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  3. the single tulip is incredible beautiful karen

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  4. Beautiful painting and a lovely post.

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