The early morning has gold in its mouth.
—Benjamin Franklin
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I am an early riser.
I guess that I’m here in the studio at 5:30 in the morning is a testament to that fact. It’s always been that way for me even as a child. The prospect of what the new day might bring has always been exciting enough to rouse me in the early morning. On those days when I have a less than thrilling or an even dreaded task before me, the thought of getting started on that task so that it will just get done and out of the way does the same.
At times in my life when I worked the overnight third shift at other jobs, the idea of going to bed when the day was breaking seemed awful and the day always felt already spent when I eventually woke up only a few hours later, as though all possibility was drained from it while I slept. I could never get used to that.
As an early riser, you get used to seeing the day unfold and the light changing as the sun rises. Each morning is teeming with the potential of the new. Even when things aren’t going well, there seems to be the possibility that this next new day will bring that change that alters one’s course in a better way.
I think that’s what I see in this new painting, a 24″ by 30″ canvas that I am calling Early Riser, of course. The sun and its rays seem new and different but filled with a potency of possibility for the eagerly waiting Red Tree. Meanwhile, the neighboring community slumbers, not witnessing the breaking wonder that is the new day.
This was a difficult painting. By that I mean it took several attempts to achieve a sky that served what I felt as I laid out the initial underpainting or bones of the piece. Twice I got quite a ways into the sky, spending many hours each time, before painting it over and restarting. They were patterned skies but never captured a rhythm that synced with my own emotions in the piece. As soon as I set out the first rays of this last attempt, it felt right for this painting and everything fell into place.
And early this morning, I feel this captures my eagerness to greet the day. Now, I have to go– there are things to be done.
Redtree Times 