Auver sur Oise
Painting our portrait by the Red Door.
When a painting is better than a polaroid
A few years back we visited the small town of Auver Sur Oise just outside of Pontoise on a trip to Europe. It’s where Van Gogh spent much of his later life. Down one of the side streets this red-door scene called to me. It would be my portrait of our French adventure and love-letter to all other artists who walked the streets of this charming countryside village. I see you, I see the beauty you yearn for. I hope you too found some of it here.
Texture begets likeness
Instead of fighting against the texture of my canvas, I opted to roll with it, letting palate knife and paint graze her surface.
Character over clutter
It’s your rendition of a memory. You can choose which parts you enhance and which ones you leave out. In order for some of the door details like the ornate black knocker to shine, I left out the plaque under the light and the poster stuck behind us. Memories don’t like clutter. They like charachter.
When artists support themselves
After many months painting on much smaller canvases I’ve become comfortable with this adjustable desk top easel. It provides a prop for my elbow so I don’t suffer from that annoying pain below the scapula, and also an extra surface for my reference picture.
A shrub is a vine is a splatter
During my challenge of painting daily back in 2019, I was obsessed with exactitudes. But towards the end of it, I fell out of love with the forced nature of it and in love with rather the feeling of nature over the exact placement of it all. She’s already perfected her architecture. Now, I far more enjoy being moved to new forms of expression through her.
All that has light has shadow
Learning to paint the enhanced shadows of things has been one of my greatest painterly insights. It brings the whole picture to life.
In some realms, we exist united
The way you sign a painting is as much an indicator of who signed it as it is a token to where they are in their life.
She lives on our kitchen shelf
May you never forget, one of the great medicines of being an artist is that you can wield beauty into your own life too, from seemingly thin air. You deserve the beauty you see just as much as everyone else you’re hoping will see value in your art.