Thanks to supportive and loving remarks from my friend Michelle, and my daughter Nina, I have embarked on a series of paintings that are drawn from memories of my childhood in South Africa.
Nina reminded me about plumbago, an ordinary and commonplace flower found in hedgerows and scrub; I used to love the lightish mauve-periwinkle blue of its little blossoms, clustered around a stem, so small and modest in themselves, but so gorgeous in profusion on the vine. The name too, so lush, 3 syllables that sound grand. I found it here at a nursery in North Carolina and brought it home with triumphant excitement. Alas, the poor thing withered and died quickly under our fierce summer sun. Most people don't realize that the Cape climate is Mediterranean, mild and gentle, similar to Northern California, and not as harsh and unforgiving as the American South can be. However, the two plumbago paintings have thrived and are very blue and touched with gold.
Michelle and her husband Stan have encouraged me to slosh on the paint, using the modern miracle of extender, and so I created a series of collage/mixed media pieces with red blobs that remind me of the flame trees that I saw in the Lowveld. As a Capie, the lushness of the Lowveld was a revelation, and the flame trees, jacaranda, frangipani and bougainvillea were an eye opener.
Funny how each painting is agony to begin; when one is in full flight, it seems quite easy, but once the energy flags the job of moving forward seems overwhelmingly challenging. I suppose that this is why many artists work on multiple projects simultaneously. Each project seems to have an inexorable rythm of it's own.
Nina reminded me about plumbago, an ordinary and commonplace flower found in hedgerows and scrub; I used to love the lightish mauve-periwinkle blue of its little blossoms, clustered around a stem, so small and modest in themselves, but so gorgeous in profusion on the vine. The name too, so lush, 3 syllables that sound grand. I found it here at a nursery in North Carolina and brought it home with triumphant excitement. Alas, the poor thing withered and died quickly under our fierce summer sun. Most people don't realize that the Cape climate is Mediterranean, mild and gentle, similar to Northern California, and not as harsh and unforgiving as the American South can be. However, the two plumbago paintings have thrived and are very blue and touched with gold.
Michelle and her husband Stan have encouraged me to slosh on the paint, using the modern miracle of extender, and so I created a series of collage/mixed media pieces with red blobs that remind me of the flame trees that I saw in the Lowveld. As a Capie, the lushness of the Lowveld was a revelation, and the flame trees, jacaranda, frangipani and bougainvillea were an eye opener.
Funny how each painting is agony to begin; when one is in full flight, it seems quite easy, but once the energy flags the job of moving forward seems overwhelmingly challenging. I suppose that this is why many artists work on multiple projects simultaneously. Each project seems to have an inexorable rythm of it's own.
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