This is another new painting from the Home+Land show that opens this coming Friday at the West End Gallery. It’s 16″ by 20″ on panel and is titled Seeker of Light. It’s a painting that drew my attention on a daily basis in the days before it left the studio, the blue tones in it satisfying a personal desire for that color that often comes over me.
There’s something in that blue that, for me, creates a sort of color intoxication. At the end of a day when I have been working up close, only inches away, I find myself smitten with the color, wanting to just keep painting endlessly with that color. I’ve talked with people in the past about this, trying to describe how I actually have to consciously pull myself away from the color or it would engulf my entire body of work. It’s pull for me is that strong.
And even though the whitish light of the moon seems to be the center of attraction here, I think it is pull from the blues that is the strength of this piece. At first glance, it’s a scene that should feel wintry and cool but the blue tones here have a deceptive warmth, supported by the underlying reds and violets, that belies the natural coolness of the color. It gives it a welcoming feel, inviting you in to follow the lines running in toward the light.
There’s so much more I could say about this painting but I won’t as it no doubt says it best for itself in the eyes of the viewer.
But that does lead us to this week’s Sunday morning music which has a reference to that color blue. This song is from Van Morrison when he was starting his career with the Irish band, Them, back in the musical British Invasion of the mid-60’s. Though they had a short life as a band, only about two years, Them produced some of the most enduring music from that era including the classic Gloria and Here Comes the Night along with this cover of It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue written by Bob Dylan. This song, with its haunting lead in, certainly doesn’t feel its age, almost 50 years old, to me.
Give a listen and have great Sunday.
It’s Saturday morning and it’s time for something different.
Redtree Times 