The open field, № 2

The open field between Kennett Legacy Fields and Red Clay Creek.

If we pause, even for a moment, to be still and listen we could hear what the spirit of the land is saying to us at that moment. It is never the same.

In the distant on the right of this field near the trees and Red Clay Creek was where I could have been trampled into the red clay by a herd of stampeding deers in 2014. They ran past me about 50 or 100 feet from where I set up to paint. Amazingly I had wanted to set up where the herd stampede across. “Wow”, I thought to myself, and I wondered what the local headlines would have printed.

Since moving to Kennett Square in 2014, I would come out to this field and ponder on how I could describe it as a painting. Also I can see it from my studio window. Sometimes I feel like it is tauntingly challenging me, “hah-hah, you can’t do it!” Ah yes indeed, the torture artist.

If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint,' then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced. — Vincent Van Gogh

The open field. Oil on braced panel, 6-1/2 by 12 inches.

back to the open field

Goldenrods in the open field. Oil on stretched linen, 20 by 16 inches.

I see a few things in the painting that I might like to adjust. Even as it is, I am still pleased with this painting.

A few years ago, I seed-bombed this open field. I was hoping to see a visual feast of native flowering plants blanketing this field. I think I noticed a few unfamiliar flowering plants, but I am not sure if they were from the seeds I have scattered. Maybe next year. Fingers crossed.

Goldenrods in the open field. Oil on stretched linen, 20 by 16 inches.

on again off again, but it will get there

this painting has been on the wall and off the wall, in storage and out of storage, on the easel and off the easel for the past two years. it’s back on the easel for some edits. to my eyes, i see more needed edits but i will leave them for some other time. otherwise i am quite please with how it is evolving.