It’s been over two years since my last posting in February 2018, and boy have these been interesting times. Give me a moment to explain my long absence, and then I’ll share my most recent painting Enlightened Garden.
I had been working on this painting during 2018 and was getting close to finishing it by the end of the summer. In September, we set off on a wonderful cruise from Venice that visited Capri, Sicily, Croatia, Albania, Malta, Montenegro, and Greece (including Athens, Olympia, Corfu, Crete, Rhodes, and Santorini). It may have been the best European trip we have ever taken.
But unfortunately, we were quickly brought back to reality when we returned home to find our kitchen flooded by a refrigerator leak. Thus began the year-long torment of restoring our house - with my painting focus changing to the testing of colors on our walls.
The flood ruined our kitchen floor and lower cabinets so they needed to be replaced. Since all of the cabinets need to match, the upper cabinets also had to be replaced. In addition, the kitchen is connected to the entire first level of our home, so all of the hardwood floors on this level had to be refinished to match. So every piece of furniture, contents and decoration on the main level of our house had to be packed and removed.
To make matters even worse, while ripping out the kitchen we found a tiny drip behind a wall and imagined there could be others. Since our lives were going to be disrupted anyway, we decided to also replace and upgrade all of the plumbing in the house. Imagine how many walls and ceilings had to be opened, patched and repainted all over the house to get that done.
Given the hurricanes and other flooding in the Carolinas that fall, there was a long list of homes ahead of ours to be worked on, so we had to wait until early 2019 without a kitchen to really begin the project. The work wasn’t completed until the fall of 2019, so we lived in chaos for almost a full year. Between the continual dust from the work, the multitude of decisions and purchases we needed to make, and the unpacking and cleaning up afterwards, painting was extremely difficult during the entire process.
The project was terribly disruptive, but the end result is a significant improvement to our home. If we had to do the restoration in today’s closed-down world, we’re not sure how or if we could have done it, so we feel fortunate that it happened when it did.
My Latest Painting: Enlightened Garden
Now that we are home with lots of time on our hands, I’ve started painting again. I am also pleased to be able to discuss the completed painting that I had been working on during 2018 - Enlightened Garden.
During our trips to Asia, we have enjoyed many beautiful gardens. This painting was inspired by two specific gardens -
this one in Hong Kong (cared for by the adjacent Chi Lin Buddhist Nunnery)
and this one in Taipei
The painting incorporates key components from these gardens - a pagoda reflected in a tranquil pool crossed by an elegant bridge, cherry blossoms, an artistically pruned topiary tree and a symbolic large rock carved with a message.
The first step was to create a pencil drawing on the canvas.
Then the base colors were painted for the entire canvas.
Next came the time-intensive painting of all the individual patterns on top of the base layers of color.
I began with the pagoda.
Then the background trees.
The topiary tree.
The ground around the pagoda.
The large rock carved with the symbol for tranquility.
The bridge over the pond.
And the cherry blossoms.
Finally for the pond and its reflections, I used waves of dots instead of patterns.
And here is the finished painting. In these serene gardens, I always feel that the spirit of the Buddha might be looking over them. If you look closely, you can find this spirit.
I’m currently working on a new painting that will be another addition to my Exotic Places gallery. I look forward to sharing it with all of you when it’s finally done, but I must thank you ahead of time for your patience, as we will all need to wait many months for its completion due to the intensely detailed nature of my Contextural style.
Until then, stay safe and healthy!