This garden takes me away

This painting is the first landscape that I can remember painting. When I took the photo that is the subject for this painting, I was laying on the walking path around one of several ponds that surround the French Senate. This garden will be a part of me forever, and the space is one of comfort, and wellness for everyone who chooses to pass through it. As you walk around the park, you will see all of the stone sculptures of the patron Saints that overlook the gardens and ponds where the children laugh, play and float their boats. I felt peaceful there in the Jardin du Luxembourg. Everything from the sound of the gravel crunching under my feet to the often turbulent winds that move the clouds that cast shadows over me in the garden. As I step through the walkways my mind wonders to the hectic pace of the outside, but I am immediately drawn back into the garden. I stare into the sky and see only the outlining shape of this lady looking into the beyond. She seems to float atop of the blooms of the season. I am lost in her thoughts and want her to forever walk on flowers and ascend into the sky to meet with her hopes and dreams.

On the road...

This portrait of Willie Nelson brought me to a new place in my painting. I am beginning to find a place where I can open up, and tell the story of what inspires me. I have spent years painting faces of made up people. It was possibly an attempt to make new friends, but the repeated exercise of making up people is not really an exercise in knowing anybody. When this idea dissolved in my mind, I decided to do some paintings of people who inspired me, and gave me a genuine love for what I am accomplishing in my life. The musicians who bring me comfort, the ones that help me paint. Willie is as close to family I can get. I feel close to him and his voice brings with it the comfortable memories of my childhood. He was the radio, he was on the records that my parents blasted on their stereo. At the time, I felt a bit uneasy because it was too loud to be in our house, so we had to go outside to enjoy the music on autumn days when the leaves were falling. His voice reminds me of my grandfather and the love we had for each other. It was a grandfather's love that was deeper than I had from anyone else in my life for many years. When Willie is singing things were bright and sun-shiny.