Here Comes the Sun

36" X 24" oil on canvas

This painting has been through so many incarnations that it should be called Metamorphosis, but I think I already named a painting that. I started this painting last year, after I completed a collaged art journal page, which you can see here. The colors made me feel very happy and peaceful, and I liked the composition. Mostly I like what I wrote about, which was everything I that makes me happy. The collage was called Garden of Hope. I had just taken an painting class and used oil paints for the first time, and I was dying to try them out. So, the beginning was easy. Lots of texture and lots of green paint, and the bird went on easily, and then I brushed on a huge lotus blossom. And by huge, I mean HUGE. It looked clumsy and garish, exactly what I didn't want my beautiful, serene painting to look like. So, I got really nervous about spoiling my vision,and I put the painting aside for almost a year. I didn't know what to do with it, until a few weeks ago, when I had the brilliant idea to cover the lotus blossom with a butterfly. I worked on that butterfly all last weekend, and guess what? It looked clumsy and garish too. In trying to cover the lotus, I'd made the butterly exactly the same size. I kept adding details, trying to make it work, but it was not one bit better than the lotus. So I put it aside and went to bed. The next day, after school, I went to yoga, and, right in the middle of class, I decided to paint over what I'd done. I rushed home, swept on tons more green and yellow paint with a palette knife, and, oddly, felt immediate relief. After the paint was dry, I studied the painting for another day and decided to go with my first instinct and use a flower for the other figure. This time, I went with a peony, a much more rounded form, and, for some reason, it worked.


Here's a detail to give you some idea of the paint applicaton.

So I'm done; I'm happy now, and today I want to wish you the same thing I wished you when I started this process. Today my wish for you is that, like me, you have something to do, something to love, and something to hope for. I hope you are happy because here comes the sun, and I say it's alright...

(for Take a Word)