Christy Ann’s Lace has been selected by Jim Caldwell for the nationally juried exhibition, Scapes: Land, Sea, Urban, at the Pacific Art League of Palo Alto. This show will run from October 2 – 26, 2012. I will attend the opening reception held on Friday, October, 5 from 5:30 – 8:00 p.m. I can’t wait to see the show ( I hear it was very competitive )!
Christy Ann’s Lace
2010
oil on canvas
28 x 22
Talk about perspective !!, this is surely a study of that, as well as two of my favorite wildflower “weeds”, wild carrot and clover, so intricately rendered. This immense field leading to the cliffs and the sea w/the haunting view of Isle de Haut at the top of the painting, is essentially a piece of north mountain nature that walked off the photography page onto your canvas with such skill and aplomb and; a multitude of minuscule mind-blowing brushstrokes. Wildflower appreciator.
It’s really amazing to see this painting, and then to think of the photo, and why I took it. The wonderful detail in the painting captures the memory of the fragrance, in a way the photo doesn’t. The individual flowers at the fore, the definition, then stretching back into a mass of colour and softness. I remember the day I ran by this field and then went home for the camera. It was both the long view, and the scent of the sun-warmed Queen Anne’s Lace and the purple clover. It was overwhelming and breathing it in I felt this deep joy at being there on the country road, running along. For a moment every care in the world that I carried fell away. And eyes tracing over the field and flowers to the island at the top, so tiny, so far away, another world from the intensity of the life in the field. I love the moment you’ve captured here, and for me, preserved. Gorgeous nostalgia, another time, another day…
Christy ann, you draw such a word-picture of a summer’s day jog on a north mountain country road.
A brief tale, so well related, evokes a sense of almost being there…. along on your outing. Joy, as early-morning senses are alerted to sights, fragrances & this, as you say, over-welmingly beautiful floral & sea vista of a place so very familiar to you, is felt by us in the reading. The poignant reference to falling away cares balanced with your lightness of spirit makes for a well-concieved fine, sharp shared memory…..all the very essence of “staying in the moment”. Thanks for the memory description of your beautifully photographed field of flowers leading to the sea. It, surely points to & celebrates you as a multi-published author.
Ah, summer warmth, often fragrant, especially when we “stop to smell the flowers” & by-times photograph them. Fondly, Betty
Thank you Christy Ann for letting me use your stunning photograph as inspiration for this painting and for sharing the beautiful backstory behind it. I too knew that very field with that gorgeous view from my days in the valley (or should I say moments on the mountain). In my youth I spent a lot of time driving up the North Mountain from the Annapolis Valley and down to the Bay of Fundy, exploring dirt roads, abandoned houses, old graveyards and of course the rugged coastline. I love how this field has now been translated into photography, paint and prose between friends.