Portfolio > Paintings

blue and white tiles far left margin, collaged list and beach with trees, water lilies and dominant blues right
In Winter, The Gardener Does Not Sleep
acrylic, collage, caran d'ache crayon on custom wood frame
24" (high) x 48"
2011

I have worked on this painting -- with breaks! -- for a few months. Originally, it was a more precise rendering of reflections in our glass windows (left) and water lilies (right), as if we were here, then there, a bit like a split screen. But that wasn't the feeling I was after. What I wanted was that moment when we reach for and hold two ideas, or two places, in our minds at one time. Somehow, that feels very safe; the mind is working... it is in control. The reflections on the glass, at left, along with the square tiles, are one place; the blues that are my memory of seeing Monet's late work is another. I have worked here to merge the two. The title comes from the head gardener at the museum at Giverny, Monet's final home. And it makes me feel... safe.