Renewal. The title for this painting comes partially from the fact that the foundation for this painting was painted years ago. When we were living in Chicago, in fact. One of the telltale signs of a painting created while I lived in Chicago is the color palette of the painting. Living in the city really brought in the yellow and the rust. Yellow because there’s a lot of buildings with a yellowish color to them there! More puted yellow than in this painting, but that’s where it came from. The painting was in a few exhibits when we lived in IL- I think one in a commercial gallery in the city, and one when I had a solo exhibit at a gallery at the Benedictine University in the western suburbs. And of course it lived in our home, or homes, as we have moved quite a bit since those days. So this painting has had a life of its own, with me and without me. And it actually is a painting that was an important one for me in different ways. But here’s the thing, I felt like it served its purpose and was ready to be something else.
So this past month, I removed it from its frame, taped up the sides and reworked it to the above image. I have it hanging in my studio right now and when I step in the room and my eyes move over to it, I feel like my spirit lifts a bit. In other words, it makes me happy. Maybe it’s the glow, maybe it’s because it has a history for me, maybe it’s because I love those birds in the treetop.
I’ve been thinking a lot about transparency lately, especially in regards to it as being one of the inherent qualities in painting with encaustic. As I start to finish up some of thse paintings I have been working on the past two months, it’ll become clear that I was exploring that. It’s been fun. I have used up a lot of medium and just put an order in today for more beeswax to make more medium. It’s kind of crazy how fast that can go. Good grief.