Tuesday, December 20, 2011

The Darkness and the Light

I'm feeling a little melancholy this morning.  As we edge towards the longest night of the year, I'm reflecting on the darkness and the light...how we need the darkness to appreciate the light. It can be an overstimulating time of year with all the shopping, cooking, parties, crowds, and made for TV specials.  It can be a lonely time of year with painful reminders of losses.  At the same time, it can be a joyous time of year with time spent with loved ones and I'm looking forward to Christmas with my family, and feeling very blessed.  We are having glorious weather so we may be able to get some good walks in while we are together.

We have a new grand baby in our family and are so thrilled to have met her and to have spent time with her parents and older brother this past week.  As she comes into the world, we are sharing the wonder with a friend whose grandson was born just a few days earlier.  However, another friend across the country gave birth to a still born daughter last week and  another friend's father died on Saturday.  I am so sad for them at the same time as being so happy for us.  So I'm reflecting on cycles.

For me painting is a time of solace, of time out of time.  I can get lost in the process and be completely unaware of time passing. And, I've been very productive in spite of the business of the season and family stuff.

Here's another sketchbook journal entry from "The Writing on the Wall".  Everything is such a learning experience...I used rice paper to cover the gaps after refilling the sketchbook with watercolor paper.  This particular rice paper is very absorbent and the water and color flow everywhere, causing it to look a little dirty, causing a big contrast with the rest of the paper.  Oh, well live and learn.  I'll try to do something deliberate on the next page that has the rice paper strip.


And here are two recently completed paintings from our Creative Every Day theme: Winter.
There's a funny pinkish shadow on this first one, but I'll leave it for now.


8 comments:

Vicki Holdwick said...

Beautiful, Barbara!!

xoxo

The Art of Phil Davis said...

I really lke them both, but my favourite is the first one, so vibrant.

Dan Kent said...

Your remarks on the cycles of life reflect my own thoughts of late. Well said. And our moods seem to correspond as well.

The paintings are beautiful, and I too love the pinkish shadow.

Linda T said...

I love the pinkishness too. In the barn picture you might try deciding where the sun is coming from and put in definite darks and lights on the proper sides of the buildings, shadows where they might fall and even shadows n buildings from trees. I love the oriental effect with the 3 trees, too. Nice work!! And your comments about light and dark are so true on many levels.

Cathy Holtom said...

These are beautiful, especially the middle one, it has a feeling of serenity. Congratulations on the new grandbaby!

Alex said...

Lovely colors, they are gorgeous!

meegan said...

wow the three landscapes are so different - they're amazing. the middle ones is out of this world, but i do like the composition of the first.

Laurie said...

I love watercolors. I especially like the third one.
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