Whisper, Acrylic on Canvas, 16x20

When I first got back into painting, I was pretty afraid, tbh.  Intimidated by the canvas, intimidated by the paints, and generally, unsure of myself.  So, thinking back to what I was interested in, I went online, and found Susan Osbornes “Abstract Landscape III”.  I immediately fell in love with the painting she created, and decided to try my own version.  This is a.. how shall I say it.. a confidence builder.  Yeah, I could still put the brush down, baby ;).  Not as well as Ms. Osborne did in her beautiful series, but enough to remember that painting was still here for me.  I sincerely hope she does not mind.

The reason, other than the fact that I found Ms. Osbornes series of Abstract Landscapes just so beautiful, is because, a while ago, I wrote a poem about trees.. and I liked the idea of combining her vision of a small gathering of trees, and the poem I wrote just to see what I could do with them both. (See here, for the poem). I loved the ideas of the trees so close together, because, perhaps like Ents, they had come together to have a chat, and whisper their secrets to each other.  And maybe to me, if I listened carefully.

The weekend I painted this was a really nice one, though I was a bit sick.  Most of the time I painted, I was listening to a 1970’s playlist — you know.. Leo Sayer, Bee Gees, Andy Gibb, The Doors, Led Zep, so the focus of the paintings went everywhere.  I had a grand time, and want more of these little canvases to play with.  They are 5×5 canvas.

I’m not quite finished – I’ll paint black around the edges of each canvas.. and then figure out how I will mount these.  Still not really sure how I’ll do that.

Music is a huge part of my life, and has been since I was a child.  If possible, I have music playing all the time.  I’m not too choosy — I like a lot of different things, from AC/DC to Vivaldi.

I was painting this evening, while listening to one of the many playlists I have, when “Roof of the World”, by Professor and MaryAnne, (off the album Runaway Favorite ) started to play.  I’ve always loved this song, and I replayed it over and over, while I painted the image below.

A bit of the lyrics:

I’ll build you a city of shimmering lights
I’ll blur the edges for you
Exaggerate its height
I’ll shine the tops of every building
So it may come to life
As the air fills
Your eyes with the thrill
Of the moon tacked to the sky
Like a pearl
I’ll meet you on the roof of the world

ps – The image is take with a cell phone :P