NATURE / LANDSCAPE NOMINEE

Grief was my constant and intense companion. Painting would hopefully pull me up and away from this beast with a life of its own. My feelings have always traveled down my paint brush and onto my surfaces. Thus the paintings were dark and depressing and were only pulling me down further. What to do? I removed all the dark colors from my palette. Paintings continued to flow but were very different. They began to lift me. Living Water uses an energetic flow to express the tempestuous tides of intense emotion, ebbing and flowing and dashing itself against any barriers or walls, undeniable and uncontrollable. I found using golden yellows in the background felt like hope - a comforting ambiance that was warm and permanent. Seeking Still Water: At the top of the painting is the churning and tears of stormy emotion that is sucked down through the dark cracks and hard, sharp edges of rock to eventually flow into a peaceful place filled with calm waters. The emotion became paint and the paint became emotion. The emotions were much darker than what was painted and yet, by using these happier colors I was able to mitigate some of that emotion and move a step closer to a better place. It is both therapy and an honestly expressed emotion to be shared. (20x26" in watercolor priced at $800) Good Memories was painted when grief was begining to wane and memories becaming joyful. (20x24" in watercolor priced at $1,000.