This is the painting that goes with the following poem. It is part of the Verse and Vision project held recently at the Q Artist's Gallery in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. The poet, Jim Pollock is a talented poet who helped organize the event. Over 300 poems were submitted; 61 were accepted into the show.  Local artists read the poems and were inspired to make art. For me, I loved the image of a river, as it flows through all the seasons.

 If You Are a River

If you are a river,
you most likely spend your summers
meandering through quaint villages
and cuddling up to canyon walls.

Come winter,
you probably freeze your skin
and entertain dark and murky thoughts
beneath your cold exterior.

Until spring,
when you burst forth, invading fields,
tearing up those little villages,
carving up those canyon walls.

Unfortunately by fall,
you end up as
mere stain in the ocean’s current,
mere silt on the ocean’s floor.

At such time, river,
it is worthwhile to remember
that now you know what every river knows,
and you have gone where every river goes.

By Jim Pollock
copyrighted and printed with permission of the poet

If You Are A River

High Water

My friend Carol and I have been outside painting the last few days at a nearby county park. The water levels in and around here are so high, a bit scary really. The water is just rushing by, black and churning. None of the cool rocks that we had seen in the fall are even visible yet...all under water.  I set up on top of the dam for this view.  I liked the shadows on the building and the lovely grays in the trees. Soon buds will be popping out and it will be all green again. It has been a long winter in Wisconsin.

Artichoke

I have been working on some still life lately. I have noticed that I am getting a little tighter than usual. I don't know what that is about. I am struggling with backgrounds and shadows. I have also been experimenting with some transparent glazes. This will be good practice I think in the long run. This subject reminds me of Easter when we used to have these for lunch on Easter Sunday. I don't think I even ate one of these until I was an adult, but our family loved the process of eating one. They are pretty yummy.

Tea Time

I have never been a coffee drinker. My Mom drank tea everyday with milk, so I guess it reminds me of her. Most people love coffee. In fact, my daughter, is a coffee barista, who lives in Portland, where they take their coffee very seriously. These are three small paintings, 3"x6" on wood blocks. I tried to convey the sense of light and lightness of drinking tea first thing in the morning.

Waterfall

I just closed a small solo show of some of my drawings of a local county park called Jordan Park. The show included 12 pen and ink drawings and a few sketchbooks to show the process of making a painting. For me it starts with a sketch and often a value painting. This work called "Waterfall" is an oil painting that came out of that process. I am trying to be more painterly as an artist and try to give more of an impression of a place rather than a photographic representation of the scene.

Road to Tiger Pointe.

I painted this from a photo that I took toward the end of a my painting workshop with Anne Blair Brown on Amelia Island, Florida. And to show what a small world we live in...I met a couple who just moved to Stevens Point, my home town, and they have a condo on Amelia Island Plantation at the southern end of the island! 6 degrees of separation!! She offered to let me rent her place or maybe go there to paint in exchange for a painting. I'm in!!