I prefer painting on panel, but with this large painting, I have copped to the advantage of canvas — weight. Whoever ends up with this painting will have to sink mollies into the wall which is really not a big deal. The image is 24 x 36 The frame brings the piece to 28 x 40. Looking at it on my little shelf there, it really dominates a room.
Wonderful image, Martha! The tree, though leafless has the gesture of a nimble spider crab kelping in a slow dance under the open expanse of generous sky above and the clouds billowing up in the distance, liminal as they surf over the horizon. And the person and dog, paused to take it all in. There is peace in this painting, a very active and living peace that requires a fleece vest to brace with the crisp and cool air. Have you titled it yet? Do you even title your paintings, as that’s certainly of course not any kind of requirement. Is the title “THE Painting”?
Its title is March in the Big Empty. When I saw the tree a year or so ago heading out with a friend to look for Sandhill Crane, we thought it was dead. I went out there a week or so to tell it “thank you” and learned that it is not a dead tree at all. Parts of it are dead, but the parts with the clusters of small branches are very alive. It’s an extension of an immense survival metaphor in my life involving trees. It was so cool.
That IS such a cool story. Thanks for sharing. You certainly painted that tree alive. I first saw it as dead, then the elbow-crab-branch-leg resting on the ground with rest of branch-leg lifted, and then my eyes just started immersing in the tree and then to the sky and the horizon and bag to the road with person and dog taking it all in. There is a hugely wonderful deceptive simplicity to March in the Big Empty. It has valuable takeaway like a Tarot card.
such a meaningful backstory to this rich painting, full of shades of life
❤
It’s glorious. I’m not religious, but it has an iconic quality about it. It is the big empty of your descriptions.
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Thank you, Chris. It is the Big Empty outside me and inside my eyes. ❤
😊 Yes
That’s pretty freakin’ cool.
Thank you. I’m proud of it and a little surprised by it.
It was out there awaiting you. I have songs like that. They just appear. All you really have to do is get out of your own way.
When I started it scared me because it was the beginning of COVID and the woman in the picture (photo I took to paint from) is a friend. It looked like her going all alone into the unknown. Very bleak. As time passed and the image evolved, I began to really see it. 🙂
Gorgeous painting, Martha. This must bring a huge sense of satisfaction!
Thank you. It was such an experience to paint, it’s been kind of a let down since then but I think that’s a good thing. 🙂
That sky is wonderful and the whole thing pulls the imagination into the road and right up to the tree!
Thank you!
The painting looks lovely in its frame, Martha. It will be so eye-catching on someone’s wall. I hope you can take a photo of the tree with its leaves so that we can all see it.
I did a few weeks? Days? ago… 🙂
I’ve had a few bad hypos over the last few weeks, Martha, so I may have forgotten. I do remember you mentioning the new growth though.
It’s OK. I’m very, very, very sorry you’ve been going through that, though. ❤
The perfect frame. Beautiful.