Redtree Times

By the Heart’s Firelight– At West End Gallery

Oft in the silence of the night,
When the lonely moon rides high,
When wintry winds are whistling,
And we hear the owl’s shrill cry,
In the quiet, dusky chamber,
By the flickering firelight,
Rising up between two sleepers,
Comes a spirit all in white.

–Louisa May Alcott, Our Little Ghost (1875)

Tired this morning and having some trouble starting the engine that drives this contraption of a blog. There are lots of things I want to talk about, some very important. But I’ve chased so many of them down dead-end streets this morning that it has left me with little time and no focus. As a result, I am just going to leave this painting now hanging at the West End Gallery as part of my current show there.

The painting is titled By the Heart’s Firelight. There are a handful of these wintry sorts of pieces in the show, and I am always drawn to their mix of warmth and coolness accented by the underlying colors beneath the snow’s white surface. I also like the way these pieces highlight the underlying texture of the painting. In this case, the strokes of my finger through the wet gesso when I was prepping the surface are plaint to see.

There’s something in seeing the hand of the artist so clearly that gratifies me. Something very human. Isn’t that the purpose of art?

Let’s just cut this short today and listen to one of my all-time favorites, River, from Joni Mitchell. It’s been a couple of years since I last shared it here and it fits the tone of my morning.  That might be the river in the painting…