Imaginary Landscape #1

What does your imaginary landscape look like gentle reader? Before I explain mine, I will welcome new readers and explain the purpose of this blog. Alrighty?

Small Spaces Special Places

Welcome new readers! Each year, I select a theme for my weekly paintings. This year’s is “Small Spaces Special Places.” Why? I have been surprised, even delighted, with the small spaces in our house that have captured my eye.

Also, there are the special places I see on my daily dog walks. Each morning, rain or shine, I love getting outdoors and looking for things to paint. Sometimes, we venture on the road and I share paintings of special places from these trips, too.

If you think you will enjoy a weekly dose of unique artwork and musings on life, sign up here for this weekly blog. Let’s get to this week’s topic!

Why Imaginary Landscape

You may be wondering why paint an imaginary landscape? After all, nature, woods, sky, sea, trees, mountains and clouds offer so many compelling reasons to paint. Don’t you think? Yes I think so too.

But as I was painting this cloud-filled painting, the clouds I saw morphed into this gigantic teddy bear. And, I just couldn’t let it go. So, as I painted I started wondering what it would be like, especially for little kids, if teddy bears did become clouds. Holy Smokes! Wouldn’t that be cool?

Then I realized I didn’t really want to paint the parking lot where I could see this view of clouds. So I painted luscious trees and blue hills off in the distance. Seeing the parking lot reminded me of living in Philly from 2014 to 2019. The city is an amazing hub of bustle, culture, fantastic food and authentic, feisty people. But the concrete everywhere really got to me…a lot.

And I remember seeing little kids playing on the street there. There was this one little girl who rode her bike with her dad every single day. It did not matter if it was raining or snowing or sleeting. That little girl, who was maybe 6 years old (teeny little girl!!), rode her bike along the streets of Philly with her dad (on his bike too). She is definitely growing up to be a super bad a$$ woman. But, shazam, I felt badly that she never got to see trees. That is unless she went over to Rittenhouse Square or Fairmount Park. But each were located a good mile or mile and 1/2 away from the Wolf Building on Callowhill Street where we (and they) lived.

Subtitle for Imaginary Landscape #1

So in my imaginary landscape, teddy bears can become big huge fluffy clouds. And, everyone, even that little girl on her bike in downtown Philly, can see trees. Wouldn’t that be amazing?

Here’s this painting with a nice view of it’s nifty two inch cradle. Isn’t that cool? It means you can hang this painting on your wall, no fuss or muss. If you love this painting and see it in your home, here’s the scoop on the price and shipping.

More Paintings This Week

Another painting I did this week is at a park just outside our house; Edna Metz Wells Park. It’s small but it has a dirt path, a creek and amazing tall trees. I try to walk in the park any chance I get. The challenge to painting any part of this little park is that the light is nearly always diffuse in the summer time. Why? The tree canopy is huge!

So, I did a practice color sketch of one of Van Gogh’s trees and undergrowth paintings. Then, I decided to use what I had learned from this by doing my own painting entitled “Dappled Light” here.

Gotta say I actually had a lot of fun painting this. These days I still find I need to think (really hard) about the ‘color key’ of the painting. In school, we would always hear that natural light is cool. Therefore, the lights are cool and the shadows are warm.

But as I looked at the light in this little park, it looked so warm and luscious. So, that’s what I painted: gold light and warm blue sky notes and cool shadows in the tree trunks and leaves.

Here’s the 2 inch cradle on this painting too.

If you think “Dappled” belongs on your wall in your home or office, hooray! Here’s the page with all the details.

Your Imagination

So, how about you, gentle reader? Are you seeing interesting or delightful or unusual or fun visuals in your imagination these days? If so, I don’t blame you. It sure is a great way to escape all the madness we are experiencing in the world right now. Please share your fun imaginings or visuals with me in the comments below. Thank you!