Yesterday on the blog, I showed one of my small pieces from this year’s Little Gems show at the West End Gallery, which opens February 6. I thought I might show another today, this one a little 4″ by 6″ painting called The Outlier’s Home.
It’s a simply constructed piece that features the intense color of the foreground set against the placid blue gradation of the sky with a red-roofed homestead alongside a Red Tree set between the two contrasting forces. It has a feeling of distance and separation but without anxiety or fear.
Maybe that is where the title originated, in this separation. I like the idea of the outlier, that thing or being that is apart from the normal set. An aberration, something slightly outside the norm in one way or another. I think that is why I envision the Red Tree standing alone apart from other trees in many of the paintings.
I like the idea here of a place outside the normal that seems peaceful and accepting of itself, not caring what the world that looks at them from across that purple field thinks. I think that’s what we all hope for in this world– an acceptance for ourselves as we are without having to put on a mask to fit into the crowd.
It’s a lot to see in a simple, little piece. But that’s my take.
Redtree Times 
Here’s something to ponder. It’s been five years since I posted about the Little Gems exhibit. Five years. That’s just amazing. I believe I’ll do a rewrite and re-post, with new images. The timing is perfect. I have one more post in my series about Indianola that will go up this Thursday or Friday, and then I can post about the Little Gems show just as it opens.
I like everything you said about this one. I love the way the road winds through the violet, and the home is set in the blue. But there’s something else. When I look at it, there are echoes of Rothko in the background. I’ll tell you what I thought. I thought, “This is what Rothko’s work could have looked like, if he’d ever finished one of those canvases.” Tongue in cheek and grinning, of course, but still….
That’s an interesting comment about Rothko. First, thanks for bringing his name into the conversation. I was influenced early on by his work, drawn to it by the simplicity and the meditative power of the forms and colors. It was easy to enter into his work, to find something in it myself. But I knew that I didn’t want to echo or mimic his work, just wanted to find something of my own with the same accessibility that Rothko created in his work. And I think my stuff works best when it has that easiness of approach in it, be it with an echo of Rothko or without.
Thanks, Linda!
On Mon, Jan 26, 2015 at 8:49 AM, Redtree Times wrote:
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