I Found My Heart Song

I was asked recently what I liked to paint.  I said that I paint everything.  This is true but that question stayed with me this past week.  What do I really LIKE to paint?  I sat for a long time with that.  I pulled out some paintings and reflected on feelings I had when I painted them.  I realized that there are times when I paint I get an inner joy that is beyond description.  It is a feeling of being high and it is as if my whole body were smiling.  I have it when painting some things and not as much when painting others.  So, I put those paintings next to each other that had memories of feeling like I was "in the zone" when I painted them.  What did they have in common?  They were not all of the same subject.  They were not the same colors.  Some were high key and some not.  Some had a lot of contrast while others not so much.  There had to be something that weaved them all together.  What was it?  Then it hit me.  They all had faces but not necessarily human faces or even animal faces.  It could be the face of a mountain.  It could be facing fears.  I found faces of flowers and faces of people or animals equally exciting.  Ah, I finally found my heart song!  I finally discovered what made me sing inside.

22"x28" oil on canvas

Traveling Artist

This past month has been one of travel.  One way I find inspiration is to look at the work of others.  The Cache Valley has lots of artists but few galleries so Bob and I took off for both warmer weather and art galleries.  We spent time in both Tucson and the Phoenix area taking is as much art as we possibly could.  I came back ready to break open the new canvases that arrived while we were out of town.  This is still a work in progress and seeing it online often helps me see areas I'd like to improve upon.  This painting is 30"x40".