”Back in the flow”

I had been feeling a distance from painting and the medium, I went to the studio last night and decided to paint something from my reference material to get back into the medium. I took out this book of “Rose Photo Postcards” by The American Rose Society that I had found in a used bookstore in LA. The process of painting this rose brought me back to the imagined landscape reality I had been lost in last year. I enjoyed painting this, it transported me back to the space I had been feeling disconnected from for the larger part of this year. Something also happened while I was painting this, I started to sing. I’m not as much of a singer as I am a dancer, but something about the process made me sing and that was new. Also, spring is coming back and the flowers will be coming out again soon. I think the anticipation of a new season is breathing a new life that was dormant inside of me for the majority of winter, I want to continue to nurture this.

This is a painting using lead white pigment from Windsor & Newton, charcoal mixed with transparent gesso and Belgium linen canvas.