Blueberry Symphony

Original Sold

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My friend Karen has a weekend home in Nevada City, Califonria. Our mutual friend Vicki and I spent a weekend with Karen there in July of 2009. After successful rescue ending a scary brush with possible catastrophe – involving Karen’s spaniel, George, Vicki and a deep culvert of rushing water – all of us still a bit wet and dirty – Karen and I visited a blueberry farm. I’d never seen blueberries farmed in large scale like this.

The bright summer sun illuminated the various colors the berries pass through on the way to our cereal bowls and pie plates. Just like the Zinfandel grapes in my brother Mike’s tiny San Anselmo vinyard, the berries start out green and end up blue, becoming yellow and then red on their way.

The next November I shared the image with a collector from Oregon who I had just met at the Sausalito Art Festival that Labor Day Weekend. Seeing it, he asked me to paint it for his wife for Christmas, an ambitious undertaking to get it done, framed and shipped to Portland in time.

As I was working on it, I appreciated connecting it with them. It’s a rare treat to paint from an image I had experienced and taken, while knowing who will be giving the painting a home – as opposed to working on a commission where that is often not the case.

As I was finishing up, my friend Brenda’s teenage son Quincy played Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata on the piano over the phone to me. I was blown away – he’s quite a musician. I e-mailed Brenda the painting when it was done and Quincy gave it its name. Vicki says it’s apt as she sees lots of dance-like movement. I am touched and gratified by all that others see in these paintings that come through me.

December 2009 – 22″x22″ – Watercolor on paper