Albatross, oil on canvas & wood, 15″ x 15″
I wonder if I dare hope the daily rains are back. The afternoon storms set up my day, force me to begin painting earlier so that when the light dims, I can take time for reading.
I’ve had Marjory Stoneman Douglas’ autobiography on my bookshelf for years; I finally read it last month. It led me on to her short stories, and “Everglades: River of Grass.” That title came to my attention when Carl Hiassen’s immortal character, Skink, quizzed a poor fellow about the name of its author–that was in the book “Stormy Weather,” I think. The character mixed up Ms. Douglas with Marjorie Rawlings and received a serious zap for his error.
Florida always leads me to think of Martin Johnson Heade, so I pulled out a catalog of his paintings and started to read the essay. I’ve been starting it for years–then I get enchanted by the images of marshes and hummingbirds and so much for the words. But this year I got far enough to want to find a biography of Heade, which led me to amazon.com. There I found (and promptly ordered) “A Summer of Hummingbirds: Love, Art & Scandal in the Intersecting Worlds of Emily Dickinson, Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe and Martin Johnson Heade.” It has just arrived–its cover is charming, but it needs illustrations! But given my habit of skipping to the pictures, perhaps that’s a good thing.
New Orleans Museum of Art
In April, my friend, mentor and long-time dealer, Cole Pratt, died of a heart attack. It was a terrible shock; he was only fifty-four. The gallery will continue under Cole’s name with Erika Schroeter Ollinger as its owner and I will continue to show my paintings there. There are lessons to learn about cherishing friendships, taking time to enjoy life and exercise more often, not to mention making hay while the sun shines. I know this, but for now it’s a dull knowledge that will take time to absorb.
One of my paintings, “If You Are Lost Turn Right Here” will be included in the exhibit at NOMA. It isn’t a typical painting for me–it has a big sky, but under it is a small kudzu-covered cinder block building with a copy of “The Last Supper” painted on its side. It’s 60″ x 60″ which is a large painting to anyone who knows my work. The title is from a notice painted on the building. I worked from a photograph I made driving on 1-65 south of Mobile. The building has a new use and a fresh paint job now; it’s appropriate for this show for the symbolism and also because Cole particularly liked it.