SOUTHWEST (JADE YEARS) -SERIES #8

"Bloom where you're planted.'" - Mary Engelbreit

BLOOM WHERE YOU'RE PLANTED- One of my favorite woman author -Sarah Ban Breathnach said....."I have discovered that if we are to flourish as creative beings, we must bloom wherever we are planted. Right now, you might not have the perfect career, home, or relationship. Few of us do. But if you have the gift of today, you've got another chance to re-create your circumstances." How true! Like her I'd like to bloom where I am. Thank God, I am not a plant but a painter. My art career is promising. I am grateful that each day is a chance to improve my creativity and painting fresher, newer and better.

 

PURPLE PALETTE This is a very pretty color. Like deep blues, purple is also a dark color and considered moody or sometimes even threatening. Purple comes in many different names like violet, lilac, lavender and amethyst. On the other hand purple is the complementary color of yellow. These two colors are directly across from each other on the color wheel. My favorite artist Vincent Van Gogh did most of his famous impressionistic paintings with complimentary or contrasting colors such as purple and yellow, red, and green, orange and blue. Complimentary colors are vibrating and very effective in lively painting.

 

 

TITLE: ""PURPLE CACTUS FLOWER"

SIZE: 18" x 24"

MEDIUM: OIL ON CANVAS

GIFT TO DR. CAROL MENDOZA

 

In this cactus flower painting, I used complimentary colors like deep purple and deep yellow -orange. It looks stunning to the eyes. I parted w/ this beautiful painting last year. I gave it as a appreciation and thank you gift to a dear friend who is a very nice and helpful dentist. We met

Dr. Mendoza through the Fil-American Association of Sta. Clarita Valley. We remained good friends over the years, together w/ his husband Edgar.
 

When my husband and I moved to San Diego, he didn't change dentist. It was a long drive to get to Sta. Clarita for dental treatment, but because Dr. Mendoza was so accommodating, it was not a problem. Dr. Mendoza treated my hubby liked a member of her own family. When he had many dental problems, she's a dentist who's always there for him. We truly appreciated her labor of love. What do you give to someone who has everything? I know our painting will make her happy, so I gave her this purple cactus flower painting.

 

 "Carry out a random act of kindness, with no exception of reward, safe in the knowlwdge that one day someone might do the same for you." -Princess Diana

SOUTHWEST YEARS - SERIES #7

"Nature furnishes a rich assortment of shapes, textures, colors, values and movements to choose from....I paint to interpret nature, not to copy it." - Edward E. Herrmann

A VISIT TO THE WESTERN ART MUSEUM Many years ago, while visiting the Gene Autry Western Art Museum in Los Angeles, California, I bought a greeting card with a view of an impressionistic landscape with cactus. I was inspired by its vibrant colors and one day I painted this Southwest colorscape. Down below was the outcome was my version of the original. I was fascinated by the tender hues of turquoise cactus , the brightest pink burst of tiny flower, the slender thorns that remind one to keep a distance. The emerging background of deep purple plateau and vast sky golden with heat had captured me too.

TITLE: "COLORFUL SOUTHWEST CACTUSCAPE"
SIZE: 16" x 20"
MEDIUM: Oil on Canvas
Personal collection of the artist

ABOUT THE ORIGINAL ARTIST The original vivid impressionistic landscape was painted by Edward Herrmann. He was inspired by the magic of the changing seasons, the variegated influences of light and Nature's mutable moods.The painter has bold brush strokes and careful eye for detail. He strives for a deep sense of vitality. His paintings invite one to move through the rich texture, to experience the emotional resonances of a particular landscape. He said "A painting changes as one's thought change. It moves as the viewers mind moves, becoming alive only through the person looking at it." Someday, I hope I'll have the chance to meet this artist and tell him how much I was inspired by his painting. Copying someones art work is a great compliment.