Size: 36″ x 48″ x 0.75″
Oil on Canvas
Description: When I first completed this painting I thought to name it after Jackson Pollock’s famous painting Lavender Mist, at the National Gallery of Art – East Bldg. Mine resides in my Lake Arrowhead, CA studio, anxiously waiting for a collector to discover it.
The painting Lavender Sage is actually a paint over of a piece that just did not resonate with me. Once the gray background was laid in the various elements were added. It actually took several days before the painting earned its name. I have to admit I kept thinking about Lavender Mist. But the more I looked at the work and its complexity, design and color palette, I was moved to thinking about the humble but so culinary friendly sage. The colors in the work spoke sage, the yellow and the green mixed with some lavender pulled it all together. It’s an interesting painting to explore visually. You may come up with your own interpretation.
All paintings seem to have their own unique energy. Representational art tells an obvious story or at least lays out the thought. My Receptive Abstract Patternism takes a much different approach, often the name of the work gives the viewer a path to follow. But I can tell you it’s not uncommon for the viewer to wander off that path and venture into their own psychological journey. Like all works of art, it’s extremely difficult to get it on a computer screen or worse yet a mobile device. This work is pretty impressive when you stand in front and take in the subtle and not so subtle details.
Note’s from the artist’s wife: The really cool thing about being present as the painting develops is to see the process & the progress of the painting. In the initial stages, the painting was almost Zen in feel, a little sparse but still had a lot of personality and soul. The energy…just starting to develop. It reminded me of a very small child getting up in the morning, tousled hair, sleepy eyes and the mind and body had not become fully awake. Later as the painting evolved and the energy and character started to surface, it reminded me of living in the desert. In our backyard I had planted tons of lavender and sage plants surrounding the pool ( I miss this pool! Since in a former life I was a mermaid LOL). So as you were hanging onto the side of the pool in the evenings especially the scent of the two herbs just made the hot desert sunset into a heavenly perfumed experience. The sensuousness of the water combined with the herbal perfumed elixir in the air made it almost dream-like. I remember that our beloved cat Kitty would actually slink around the plants and smell them, then plop on the hot poolside concrete for a makeshift open air sauna.
