Offering

Original Sold

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In 2011 I had a show at the Two Bird restaurant in the San Geronimo Valley, where I grew up. On a visit to the restaurant, a woman bought my painting “Honey Bee and Rugosa Roses” (actually it was the artist proof, the original had already been claimed). Thus we became connected so I could include her as I shared what I was painting and where I was showing. When I sent out a postcard with “Blush” announcing Open Studios in 2013, she called me asking if the original were available. These two paintings started her collection of my work. Later in 2013 she joined our Friday painting group and has become a Friday regular.

In October of 2014 she invited the Friday group to paint and have lunch at her house, in her garden, instead of in Larkspur. She provided an enormous spread of yummy food not just for lunch, but also coffee and goodies for when we first arrived. I’ve come to know her as one of the most gracious and generous and loving people I’ve ever met. She invited us again the next October. One of the gifts offered to her were these hydrangeas from another faithful Friday artist who grew them in her garden.

We were all captivated by the range of intense colors, so out they went into the garden to rest on a piece of Italian tile set on the corner of a wall-mounted fountain so we could take photos. I led a Saturday on painting water, so I drew this one to have at the ready as a demonstration piece. I painted it off-and-on over six months, setting it aside to work on other things. Once I returned to it, though, it had me. It’s the most intricate and complex thing I’ve painted so far. I painted the flowers last, which was a trip around my palette with all the colors. So much fun. Though the colors are intense, there is something somewhat softer, less vibrant than much of my recent work, making it soothing.

I continue to challenge myself with one-word titles. The one that came to me for this one is “Offering” which combines “gift” and “contribution,” both of which I am enormously blessed by – from our hostess that day – and in my life as a whole.

November 2015 – June 2016 – 29″x38″ – Watercolor on paper