One Perfect Pumpkin

My husband brought this sweet pumpkin into the house yesterday.  Just looking at it makes me happy knowing that autumn is on the way.  Since it was so hot this summer, no one thought to turn the compost heap in the back of the garage.  And since we always recycle our pumpkins there every year, that's where a new batch of pumpkins decided to grow.

We'll try to bring more pumpkins indoors as they mature, because if left outside the greedy squirrels will start chomping on them.

Autumn....asks that we prepare for the future-

that we be wise in the ways of garnering and keeping.

But it also asks that we learn to let go - to acknowledge

the beauty of sparseness.

- B. W. Overstreet (1947)

Lambert Lake

 Lambert Lake

18x24

Oil on Linen

About a month ago, I went for a walk with my daughter.  She never cares how hot it is.  She always manages to get me to go.  We went in a different direction from our usual walks.  She took me to an area right near our house where I had never been.  I couldn't believe it!  Here was a beautiful landscape area called Lambert Lake.  I had never been tempted to go to this area because it's right behind an ugly water treatment facility.  

Two weeks later my husband and I went back for a little picnic with wine and appetizers.  We walked around the lake at dusk and I found the inspiration I needed.  Funny what gifts are available when we least expect it.

Sonnet

Sonnet

18x24

Oil on Linen

In between painting, I enjoy reading in the summer months.  I've been avoiding long books at this time because if a good book grabs me, I can't put it down until I'm finished.  I'm not a chapter a day person.  So I read books that don't have a story sequence.  I'll save the epic novels for the cold weather months.

I came across this quote by Eric Maisel.  It made quite an impression since it has to do with why we create, whether it's baking, writing, woodworking, gardening or whatever drives one's passion to create.  

Love is the spirit that motivates the artist's journey.  The love may be sublime, raw, obsessive, passionate, awful, or thrilling, but whatever it's quality, it's a powerful motive in the artist's life.

Sometimes I'm in the obsessive catagory.  Other times I'm in the thrilling catagory.  But I've definitely experienced them all.  

Inspiration

Evening's Call

Oil on Linen

18x24

Where does the inspiration that goes into a painting come from?  Sometimes the artist doesn't even know.  I think we all have subconscious memories of landscapes witnessed from years back.  There may have been a moment in time that was so vivid that it was stored as a precious sensory experience.  

I know we all do this with scents and foods we've tasted from our childhood and beyond.  Just a whiff of vanilla brings me back to when my mother was baking in the kitchen when I was a child.  Biting into a juicy hamburger reminds me of when my dad would make them on the charcoal grill.  I imagine the same is true with inspiring skies we've seen over the course of our lifetime.  

Skies are always so fleeting.  If a photo isn't taken right then and there, the moment is gone for good.  Sometimes I don't know where the inspiration comes from.  But I think that a lot of inspiration comes from some moment that was so poignant that it was locked away.  Until imagination sets it free.