This phrase was running through my head as I worked on a painting of a bee visiting rosemary blossoms. I drew freehand from the photo and think it’s close enough to that image to be believable: a plausible lie. My works are probably too representational, but I often reach several points in the painting process when I have to make up stuff. Remove boulders in a creek scene that would otherwise be overcrowded with them, add blossoms and rosemary needles in the gap in space that developed between actual photographic details when I sketched…it’s a matter of looking long enough at the subject to feel confident that I get the pattern, the core shapes, and then can improvise a bit.
Haven’t been posting here for a while because I’ve been busy painting, working first of my now twice-monthly shifts at AOV Gallery, attending NVAA board and general meetings, planning spring trips, etc. It’s warm and sunny today, with a breeze that’s too small to use as an excuse for not riding my bike so that’s next. Seedlings in the cold frame are coming along, the new “Julia Child” rose is leafing out, California poppies are opening up in the driveway bed. It’s spring.
Drove up to Calistoga on Hwy 29 and back down to Napa on the Silverado Trail this morning to photograph what’s left of the mustard bloom. The most accessible (and excessive) bloom was off Oak Knoll and Big Ranch Rd. I could walk right alongside the field. Red-winged blackbirds sang courting songs just below sight. I finally spotted one on a vertical stake. Oh no, not another bird painting, Carol.
To the bike.
garagepainting 