An Orange Frog, A Wild Cat And Inspiration

Jeremiah, 12x12, Oil on Canvas

Tangerine Reverie, 18x18, Oil on Canvas

Inspiration. It's everywhere and is filtered through other things that resonate with us. Jeremiah, the orange frog was an idea that came to me after a trip to the greenhouse where I saw a huge 4 foot tall green resin frog nestled among the water plants. Ok, so Jeremiah is not green but I'd just painted the orange wild cat/cheetah/leopard hybrid Tangerine Reverie which was partly inspired by my petunias and was still in the mood to paint orange. And more spots, stripes, flowers and pillows, motifs that I explore again and again in various ways. When I paint realism my subject matter is usually still life and here it appears as the setting for Tangerine Reverie. You'll see piles of pillows in Maybe Later and The Art of Resting about 6 posts down from January 2015 and March 2013 which also show up in Jeremiah. It's a lovely organic melding of past ideas that I'm not finished exploring. 

Cheetah and Pillows

The Art of Resting, Oil on Canvas, 30x24
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'The Art of Resting' was painted after a month or so of doing primarily still life. As much as I love the zen of still life the lure of playing with my imagination and going wild with colour is irresistible.

It's fascinating to see the links and threads of one's own creative life, to see how old unformed concepts connect to the present. Even though I have only been painting these whimsical cats, birds and flowers for a couple of years the idea for something along these lines was lurking about only as rough scribbles for illustrations in sketchbooks and bits of paper. An idea that was sketched out years ago and found in a file cabinet was the inspiration for this painting. Suddenly I'm grateful for my propensity to note everything and save those scraps of paper that litter the studio, you never know when an old idea will come to life.

Sunflowers and Red Wing Black Bird

Secrets of a Fall Garden 16x20 Oil on Canvas
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This time of year is a sensory smorgasbord with geese calling their way south, birds feasting on berries, crisp apples right off the tree, yellow sunflowers, fields with golden swaths, and the crunchy sound and rich smell of fallen leaves. As if those aren’t reasons enough to love fall there’s a particularly soft and mellow quality to the light. It’s a golden colour that infuses everything with it’s soft warm hue.

Orange Wild Cat Oil Painting

Que Sera20x12, Oil on Canvas
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Another year has passed and with it some very good moments and along with some inevitable sad ones. We can't experience this great big wonderful life without having both, it's what gives life it's richness and depth. This painting is symbolic of our viewing of the past year, as we look back at the past and ahead to the future.