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"It's Never Like What You Expected" - oil on canvas, 15 x 30 x .75 inches. This is unframed but ready to hang. (click on the image to purchase)
“No one can tell you what your life is goin to be, can they?
No.
It's never like what you expected.
Quijada nodded. If people knew the story of their lives how many would then elect to live them?”
― CORMAC MCCARTHY, The Crossing
It's Never Like What You Expected
If you've never read any Cormac McCarthy, maybe pick up one of his novels and crack it open on a rainy, dismal day.
It's heady reading - exquisite prose, heavy symbolism and themes that make your heart ache. Sometimes it leaves me weeping. It always leaves me thinking. And surprisingly, it leaves me wanting to be a better painter. To capture deeper emotions, to reach deep into the viewer and touch something hidden.
And so the vacant eyes of these silent sentinels under an alien sky remind me to listen, look and feel all around me. Life is never like what you expected - the crows remind me to meet life where it is, not where I thought it should be.
It's heady reading - exquisite prose, heavy symbolism and themes that make your heart ache. Sometimes it leaves me weeping. It always leaves me thinking. And surprisingly, it leaves me wanting to be a better painter. To capture deeper emotions, to reach deep into the viewer and touch something hidden.
And so the vacant eyes of these silent sentinels under an alien sky remind me to listen, look and feel all around me. Life is never like what you expected - the crows remind me to meet life where it is, not where I thought it should be.
About the art: inspired by our own family of crows, who pose for the camera nearly every day and somehow remain mystical and powerful despite their absolutely ridiculous antics and the silly sounds they make. Beginning with a gesso'd canvas and a light sketch with a brush and thinned paint, then slowly working from light to dark. Alternating between brush, rubber wedge and a squeegee (to get those delicious textures at the bottom of the painting) and between hard and soft edges. Letting the planets be wonky and wobbly while the center stage crows are crisp and noble. I think Rocky and Natasha would be pleased.
It is the final week of the October Reader Giveaway! Leave a comment on any blog post this month to enter. One (or more) lucky readers will win a piece of original art - FREE! Now THAT'S a Halloween treat!
4 Comments
Wonderful painting. I want you to know since I started reading and now listening to your blog- Isee the crows around my house with new eyes because of you. That's a gift. Thanks.
Thea!!! Thank you ever so much! And CROWS! What wondrous, intelligent members of the community. I am just delighted that your own crows are being seen in a new way!!! xoxoxo
Crisp and noble. Mystical, powerful, and absolutely antically ridiculous. YES YES YES! I wonder if your family of crows knew this is what they were electing to live as their lives!!!
Dotty!!! Antically ridiculous - made me immediately think of "magically delicious" (lucky charms cereal). I bet Rocky and Natasha want WAY MORE than a painting or two. ha ha!
