Orange is the color of energy!

Yesterday I was home in the studio on a rainy Central Texas day, preparing my canvas for the next Aspen images to be featured in the upcoming show "Poet Tree" at studio2gallery in Austin, TX.

While I was in Colorado, my brother, musician and songwriter, 
Bob Rea, drove me up into the high country to gather aspen images and sketches.  I wanted to reconnect with my remembered feelings about Colorado, and recharge my visual memory with sensory perception.  As I lay in the Aspen grove looking up into the canopy ovehead, listening to the quiet rustle of Aspen trees in the cool, Colorado air, I rested my eyes and saw a bright orange "negative" image created by the light filtered though closed eyes. As I drove from Durango, CO, back to Albuquerque NM, this image kept reappearing, and I began to think about how I would paint this fleeting memory. The process of keeping a feeling alive until it can be put on canvas is an artist's challenge.

After recalling the image, thinking about it, looking at the Aspen pics/ sketches several times a day and playing with various hues during the week, I decided on three 24 x 24 x 2.5" canvases which I have painted a slightly muted orange.  To me, this part of the process is pure fun, and I often paint other canvases with any gesso left on my brush at the end of the process. Now to move forward into the cool hues and recapture a moment in time.  Happy Painting to all!