Granny Magic

My Maternal Grandmother, Cora Lee Whitfield, was a major part of my life. My brother and I called her Mawmaw. All her grandchildren were important to her, but she and I had a special bond. I was asthmatic as a child and she'd help my Mom take care of me.  She knew just how to hold me so I could breathe a bit easier and made soft French fries for me to eat.  I have a distinct memory of the rocking chair creaking as she rocked me as a young child.   She was praying as we rocked, talking with her ancestors.

I have picture of her as a beautiful 19-year old with long dark hair in my living room.  When my daughter was an infant she woke up crying.  I took her to the living room and I was rocking her in a rocking chair.  She continued to be fussy, but stopped.  I looked down at her and she was leaning back a little, staring at the picture of my grandmother. I firmly believe Mawmaw was soothing my daughter.  Her spirit was alive in that photo.

My wife's grandmother was an artist.  I never got to meet her as she passed away in 1985.  When my wife and I got married I was given her old easel and one of her old stretched canvases that had been stored. I put away the canvas for the right idea, but set to work using that easel since it was taller than the one I was using. Some of my better paintings were done on her easel.

This past weekend I had an idea for a painting so I decided to use her old canvas. I thought the time and the subject were right.   This canvas is 24 X 20 and close to 50 years old.  It was hand stretched, used tacks instead of staples and looks to have been gesso'd with what looks like a palette knife. The back had been aged yellow and had a few water stains.   Lets say it's got some personality.

I set to work using a style I'm not quite used to.  My normal work is small, technical and precise.  Here I used jabs and smears of color using my hands, an older brush, and even paint slung from a brush handle for a splatter effect.  The central subject was a Great Blue Heron, a bird as always, but it was done quick with less thought, more feel. Before I knew it I was done.  I kinda thought Alex's Grandmother might've guided me or at least helped me shut out my monkey mind to let it happen. 

Yep, Granny Magic.

Catch of the Day

I'm slowly working my way through In the Company of Crows and Ravens by John M. Marzluff and Tony Angell.  One of the Corvids outlined was the New Caledonian Crow.  This crow is capable of tool use as well as solving multi-step puzzles to get to tasty morsel.  Its passed a number of sophisticated cognitive tests which suggest it's particularly intelligent.

The New Caledonian Crow isn't the only one.  The Green Heron is also a tool user.  The Green Heron is an accomplished fisherman, perching motionless on the bank or a branch, ready to grab a fish by striking out with their long necks.   You can imagine it much like a snake strike.  What makes them amazing fisherman is their use of bait as a tool.  They'll put the bait (food or an object) in the water and wait for a fish to appear.  They won't wait too long, they'll reposition the bait much like someone casting his line over and over again.

So my most recently completed piece was of a Green Heron.  It's called "Spying the Catch of the Day" and you can image he's just placed the bait and is patiently waiting for his catch of the day.  It's acrylic on a 6 X 8 canvas panel.  It's available for purchase using my available gallery gadget at the upper right.

Learning to Fly

I sometimes feel I in a running battle with time.  Maybe "battle" is not the right word since there's nothing you can do about the passage of time.  It just is. George Harrison said "time is a very misleading thing.  All there is ever, is the now.  We can gain experience from the past, but can't relive it; and we can hope for the future but we don't know if there is one."  Maybe that's it, having reached that point in my life where there's less road ahead and more behind and the world situation increasingly fragile. The "now" is more important.

I think that's why I'm really enjoying painting small works (less than 8 X 10) as a preparatory study.
They are as highly detailed as their sibling just smaller and I finish them sooner. I can complete a small piece in a day; two at best and get that endorphin dump of accomplishment.   Even small,  each piece gets the same amount of attention to detail.  The only difference is the small piece is done on a canvas panel instead of the smooth birch of the final piece.  Both are unique due to variation in brush stroke and lessons learning from color choice or layout decisions.

The most recent one I've completed is one called "Leaning to Fly" and was based on a photo of two fledgling swallows perched upon a concrete fence post.  You can imagine the pair debating the conditions.  "I'll go with the bit of  breeze"  or "I'll try it if you go first."   It's on a 6 X 6 canvas panel. 

Would I do anything differently?  The only thing differently for the final piece is include a small retaining wire that folds over the front of  the concrete post and wraps around the fence wire on the right. It'll look perfect on its larger relative since it'll cast a faint shadow on the post and won't compete visually with the swallows.