dogs

“Dogs are our link to paradise. They don't know evil or jealousy or discontent. To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring...it was peace.” 

Milan Kundera

a trillium

 Painted from life.

last night the moon was pink

 April 26, 2021 Unseasonably warm temperatures and a full moon. The redbuds, azaleas, tulips, crabapple and magnolia trees are blooming in brilliant shades of pink, fuchsia, rose, magenta and whatever blooms and glows with the blush of springtime. Even the trees or flowers that look white are pink in the center when you look close.

We timed our after dinner walk perfectly to see the last rosy shades of the setting sun and the huge rising presence of the full moon. And the moon was pink! As it loomed over the horizon it was impossibly large and impossibly pink.  

I had to paint a watercolor sketch when I returned home.

who is the masked woman and painting number 24

Who is the masked woman lurking in the produce aisle of the grocery store? She looks like a suspicious character as she examines multiple bulbs of garlic, handles all the tomatillos, looks closely at every single pepper. And don't mention how long it took her to decide on a a few jalepenos.  The artist is a strange shopper, turning each little vegetable this way and holding up that one to see it to best advantage. And she doesn't even intend to cook or eat the produce she finally decides to buy. 

All of it, all the vegetables, all destined to end up in a still life serving the purpose of art.

"Tomatillos" by Janice Skivington March 2021 oil on canvas 6x8

sight gags

"Relish, joy, and pleasure are one solution to exhaustion. So is a walk around the neighborhood, noticing that the daffodils are blooming-+such reliable sight gags with those clown frills and huge schnozzes. Paying deeper attention paradoxically relieves exhaustion, because it awakens us. It makes us laugh. Laughter is a battery charge."

Anne Lamott - Dusk, Night, Dawn: Notes on Courage

I love to see new daffodils in the spring, a major motivation to get out for a run or a walk daily. But I had not thought of a daffodil as a sight gag. Clown frills and huge schnozzes? I had never noticed them that way until Anne Lamott described this. Writers! A good writer makes you laugh, sigh, look harder, and think.

yesterday and today

 It seems that only yesterday we were locked into the long cold grip of winter and that it would last forever. I painted this view from my window on a snowy day in early March. Here is the post I wrote.

Today! It looks like this! Exclamation points are necessary because springtime blooms happen like an explosion  of color. This is my small star magnolia tree that surprises me in April with these generous pink and white blooms. I'm thinking about painting the same view with pink flowers instead of snowdrifts.

Easter Sunday

This is a painting that I created for my church to use for the Easter Sunday service last year. Last year the printed bulletin never happened because we were all on lockdown. 

There was a service broadcast on on the internet from our church but it was not the happy experience of being there in person. I titled this painting of Jesus Christ rising from the grave, victoriously kicking the stones out of His way, "That Glorious Day". 

I wrote about this art here.

And about the song we sing "That Glorious Day". 

Holy Saturday

A year ago we were stuck at home in total lockdown. Missing Holy Week services seemed so strange and miserable. Now a year later we are accustomed to so many strange practices that have become part of our culture. This year we will have family with us to share the holiday and we will go worship on Easter Sunday in person, although outdoors and wearing masks which now seems almost normal. Here is the art I created for the Saturday Easter service from last year that was not used because no service bulletin was printed. We did have a online service broadcast via youtube that I watched from my studio.

wait with me

Gethsemane...

"The grass never sleeps.

Or the roses.

Nor does the lily have a secret eye that shuts until morning.

Jesus said, wait with me. But the disciples slept.

..."

- Mary Oliver -

daffodils coming soon

"Daffodils,

That come before the swallow dares, and take

The winds of March with beauty.“

~ William Shakespeare.