Small Things That Occupy Your Mind

Sometimes it’s the little things that matter. So I painted small this Thanksgiving morning. After all, I had to go back up the hill to check on Mr. Tom Turkey, bubbling happily away in my oven. 14 people depended on him being done to a golden brown with no trace of sawdust when sliced. So to get too engrossed in the paint works might have resulted in the dreaded failed holiday meals stories that live generations on past the poor cooks. I can see it on my headstone, “The backlit landscape was to die for, but for this, the poor turkey should not have had to give up the ghost.”  I digress.

Thanksgiving morning was early up to stuff and truss that big ol’Tom and pop him in the fourneau, that’s stove for you English types. Everybody else was off to a late start, so I grabbed my brushes and a small prepared board and down the hill I went to record the last gasps of the rabbitbrush. No more brilliant gold. The color is more like the color of worn wheat, a silvery yellow atop sagey green rangy brushes. I did a small piece only 8x10. So I kept my view small.

 I painted the arroyo from a vantage point on the edge of the road. No more bunnies this year, but I heard the quail and the hawks and something else rustling the bushes. I sang a bit. No I’m not musical, but I do have a pronounced survival fetish. Whatever it was, left. I tell you, if it isn’t art critics, its music critics.

After looking at this piece for about a week, I think I might have gone into it a bit darker, but I like the sun-flooded arroyo bright and airy. It's definitely showing a lot bluer than in real life and I have uploaded several times. The color shift occurs at the point of upload to the blog. Weird. It looks fine in Photoshop, where I cropped it.

So I framed it and called it “Thanksgiving Morning, Wind Canyon”. It was a sunny morning, cool the way it makes your nose run. I love fall. 8x10 and it is available at a reduced price this weekend at my Studio Grand Opening.

Oh yeah, that the other thing that has kept me busy besides cooking and an out-of-town wedding and house guests for the holiday. My Studio Grand Opening is this Saturday and Sunday. If you are around do stop by and visit. Its not totally done….its just mostly done.