PAINT AS YOU LIKE AND DIE HAPPY!

I rolled out of bed this morning in the cold & dark, to go outside and take a hot hot shower under the twinkling stars with the moon's crescent smiling down on me. Sometimes getting up in the dark isn't so bad.

My new digital camera is on its way--and this blog is about to improve! I am very excited about learning how to use a digital format!

I just finished reading some Henry Miller, and decided that it's a good day to talk about "The Paintings of Henry Miller: Paint as You Like and Die Happy". The book is beautifully arranged between sections of text and black and white drawings printed on heavy grey paper, and blocks of reproductions of his paintings from each decade: 1930's up to the 1970's. Henry Miller had a true passion for painting, and he always approached it with a childlike glee. I credit him for getting me out of a painting block that lasted for about 10 years. I was so unhappy in my freshman year of art school that I changed schools, changed my major, and stopped doing art for awhile. I had been drawing and painting all my life. I stuck my toe in the waters of art again with batik and fabric design, which lead to weaving, ceramics, and sculpture, which I finally got a degree in. But no painting. I had the desire to paint again, but wasn't sure where to start. Miller's writing and love of paint, and the examples of what he had done gave me permission to start again and to play. It was very freeing. Here is an excerpt from the book:

"Since 11:30 PM this evening I've been carried away by the discovery of yellow ochre! Marvelous color! I put it in the sky and get dawn, put it in the grass and I get a golden light. Since twilight I've been shuffling back and forth between two watercolors---the same theme, different treatment. In each there is a tree (always the same tree, like the one I did in front of St. Augustin's), a body of water--tarn, creek, lake, river??--and hills, green as the hills of Ireland. I used sap green hoping to get a faint gold, but got Irish green instead. A little Prussian blue near the tops of the hills and they glow with all the metallic ores deposited there and guarded by the seven dwarves. Trying to through the reflection of the hills into the water I had to go over the water so often that there is every kind of blue and green in it."

I don't know about you, but he makes me want to go paint!

Image above: "Balancing Act" Gouache on paper by Christine DeCamp