#2935 "September Sunflower Reflections"

 

#2935 "September Sunflower Reflections"
14 X 18 by (7/8) profile (inches). 
Oils on smooth panel
Started 9:00 am Saturday, March 8th, 2025

A series of paintings requires at least three members and preferably an odd number. It is strange, perhaps, but that is at least how my mind works. The other two contestants in this series were super wet: #2933 "Sunflowers Endure" and #2934 "Sunflower Bouquet for a Winter Day". I could not touch them without wearing some of those oils. 

The best solution was to pick up another of my Dad's panels and start a third happy sunflower painting on a chilly winter morning. The high-pressure area was still well to the west. The anticyclonic curvature of those icy isobars produced super-geostrophic winds. The wind chill would have frozen my hands for sure if I had ventured outside. I feel a bit like a wuss, but it is best not to freeze my hands again. Milder weather was on the March horizon. 

The sketch also shows the "Barcodes" of the paintings that are in progress but not completed. 
Those masking tape tags stay on the easel that my Dad made until the paintings are done, 
at least to my satisfaction. I feel that those rough lines exude joy... and fun...

I selected another of my sunflower photos from the afternoon of Friday, September 25th, 2020. I reflected that image so I would see a different side of the light, making the painting different from the others. I was also reflecting (remembering) the kinder and gentler pre-COVID time. It would also be wonderful to go back even further in time to before September 11th, 2001. My wife and I were on a canoe trip at the Leslie Frost Centre and oblivious to that horror until we returned. Hatred, greed and a lot of other unsavory human characteristics surfaced on 911. The kindness of the generous folks in Gander and, in fact, around the world has apparently been forgotten as the USA launches an insane trade war on Canada. It may be narcissistic madness, but it is also about money in the crazy manipulation of the stock markets for personal gain by the insider few. 

I used a swivel chair and a cardboard box to paint the edges of my Dad's stretcher frames. It may make it impossible to touch the paintings without wearing the oils, but it finishes the edges and precludes the need for a frame. I feel that the art needs to speak for itself.  My Dad was an artist with wood being his medium. I think of him every time I sit down at my Studio easel, which he made. 

I prefer to be happy and paint within the Singelton Sanctuary. I rarely leave the property...

I had two and sometimes three palettes going at one time to keep my oils clean. 

Life is good and creative in the sanctuary... I even went paddling a few times in the eastern bay of Singleton after the ice melted out of the eastern bay. 

For this and much more art, click on Pixels or go straight to the Collections. Here is the new Wet Paint 2024 Collection. Best wishes for a happy and healthy 2025. 

Warmest regards and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick