Remembrance -The Pink Chair Project #17 - "Garden by the Sea"

               

"Garden by the Sea"

Oil on Canvas

36x48

Framed; Available for delayed sale (see below)

$2670

  

When I was in Rockland I was very taken with a pretty town park by the edge of the sea and took pictures there three times. I watched these beautiful poppies open and expand and start to flop a bit during the time I was there. There was also a small gazebo. While I was there, I met a woman, an artist also, who arrived on a bike, and who maintained the garden. When I asked, she said she was not part of a garden club, but she just did it because she wanted to, including putting plants in and maintenance. This painting was not working until I put her in and later I realized why and the connection to Mom. Mom was above all, committed to people around her. In each of her areas of connection, she had many friends and she was always contributing to some aspect of making her community better. Not only is there a community of 25 poppies in this piece, everyone different, but when I put the gardener in, the piece came together. Its not about the poppies, its about community and contributing to make a more beautiful world, another surprise. My art always knows where I am going and it always gets there first.

I am now sharing my current show with my readers and daily paintworks viewers. This show is currently traveling and unreserved work will be available for purchase after the travel is completed, around mid-2014. Paintings may be held until then with a 10% down payment. E-mail me or see my pink chair project blog, for details. High quality giclee prints are available on paper or canvas in a range of sizes as well as blank cards with this image. E-mail me for further information.

This exhibit tells the story about painting a pink plastic Adirondack chair. The chair represents my mother, Carolyn Elizabeth Pedersen Schulte, of Rochester, NY, who passed on June 5th, 2011. She was a wonderful woman, full of love for everyone around her, and she loved this bright color pink. She was proud of me as an artist and would love what I am doing. I take the chair to favorite places of hers and to places or situations I know she would have liked. It is a way for me to grieve and to celebrate her life. I talk to her as I paint and make sure that she would want to be where the chair has been placed.