Blog

Confucius said “Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.” 

I love all kinds of art, but my favorite genre has always been still life.  And in my still life paintings my favorite subjects are usually growing in my back yard - lemons, tomatoes, apricots, mandarins, kumquats, roses, flowers of all kinds.  I paint them when they are available, quickly setting up a still life when the preferred subject is blooming, ripe, or at its best.  Consequently, I tend to paint a lot of still lifes beginning in early spring and continuing through early summer. 

That is exactly what I have been doing since the start of the COVID-19 lockdown in March.  When you’re stuck at home waiting out a pandemic, being able to paint is a blessing.  And when this all started, my backyard was a goldmine of subjects….. for a while. 

Spring brought a bountiful supply of flowers of all kinds.  My lemon tree was overflowing with beautiful fruit, the kumquats were plentiful.  Now that July is here, my roses have all bloomed and now are looking a little weary from the heat.  My lemons have all ripened and been picked.  The kumquats are gone, the apricots and mandarins are all but forgotten.  The daylilies have opened and closed, and other flowers have had their moment.  My latest work-in-progress “So Very Red,” features the mandevilla vines growing on my back patio.  I picked a bunch of them to set up a still life just in time.  They are now starting to look a bit faded and sad.

"So Very Red," work-in-progress

In pre-COVID times vacations, road trips, botanical gardens, parks and other destinations were an additional source of artistic subject matter when the hot weather came around.  Venturing out to local areas and doing plein-air studies provided inspiration for landscapes.  Today, with the virus still out there, that’s just not an option for me.  My husband Greg and I are both over the age of 65.  In addition, Greg has some underlying health conditions, so we are in the high-risk category for COVID-19 complications. 

In light of this, my own home and backyard will continue to be the source of my artistic inspiration for some time to come.  The trouble is, I’m running out of subjects! 

So I’ve decided to explore the idea of painting things that I would not have otherwise thought of painting.  Apparently there is no limit to what can be the subject of a still life.  I have seen still life paintings of bicycles, lawnmowers, extension cords, shoes, Styrofoam packing material, paper bags, dead fish, trash, sushi, coat hangers, light bulbs and more.  One artist I’m familiar with painted her toes sticking out of a bubble bath! It’s amazing how just about anything, positioned in interesting ways and lit just right, can produce an awesome painting.   

One thing I love about art is its ability to make us see things in a whole new way, creating an opportunity to appreciate the magic in the mundane, the unique splendor in everyday, ordinary objects.  I do believe that there is beauty in just about everything, and it is the artist’s job to help the viewer see it. 

Having limited subject matter forces me to think a bit outside the box, and that’s always helpful for stimulating creativity.  Lately I have been looking around my home to get some “inspiration.”  My ideas for future still life paintings have been spinning in my head for some time now.  I have a bookshelf in my studio that holds all of my still life props – old bottles, teapots, vases, boxes, and various weird items that I found in junk stores and second-hand shops.  I usually use one or two of these items with some flowers or fruit to build a still life composition.  But now I’m thinking of simply building a composition out of the props themselves – just a collection of old, used, funky-junky knick-knacks I’ve collected over the years. 

It’s pretty easy to keep painting a bunch of flowers in a vase, but what about when the flowers aren’t so great anymore?  I’ve considered putting together all my vases (I’ve got a lot of them), without any flowers, and seeing if that would make an interesting painting.  I’ve also been eyeing my used messy paint tubes, a collection of vintage Valentines, my garden gnome “George”,  a pile of my scarves,  an avocado wrapped in Saran Wrap, a collection of clocks, a bunch of used lipsticks…… all possible still life subjects?

Recently, I noticed how colorful Greg’s Fruit Loops were, and started imagining a still life composition featuring his favorite breakfast cereal (am I getting desperate?).

Although I’d rather be out and about, exploring the world to get artistic inspiration, COVID-19 doesn’t seem to be going away any time soon.   So it looks like for the time being, I’ll be rooting around my immediate surroundings to find inspiration for future paintings, searching for the magic in ordinary stuff, or, as Confucius says, the “beauty in everything.”

As we continue to weather the demands and limitations of this pandemic, I sincerely hope that you and your loved ones are safe, and continue to try to make the best of an unfortunate situation.  We are, truly, all in this together.  Stay well.