Bridge

Bridge – Oil on Masonite – 36 x 48 inches.

As foolish as it may seem, I have been trying for years to paint things I can’t see. The word, “things” is hardly accurate because it’s a noun. “Verbs” comes closer to what I have been chasing, but how does one paint verbs? Here’s an example of an attempt from a while ago.

Earth: Nine trees in a row, except that they don’t act like trees; I wanted them to be transparent, like doors opening to reveal a blue sky.

Water: From the bottom left a coastline and sea waves intersect with the sky.

Air: A layer of high clouds floats into the scene from the top right.

Fire: I wanted to paint a lightning storm, but didn’t have the skill. So I tried to suggest fire’s presence by an orange glow in the sky.

Four elements coming together from three different perspectives. Does this convergence suggest the action of invisible forces? I had hoped that it would, but that was years ago, and I’m still trying to visualize what isn’t visible.

The Polish Girl

“Bright and warm this morning under the awning of the café in the little plaza, the one with the playground and palm trees. No lindens here, or willows, but coffee smells as heavenly in this old Mediterranean port as it does at home. My gray city. Its name Spaniards find impossible to pronounce.

“Summer still feeling close this afternoon. It was fun posing without my dress for the painter from America. October. The first rain of Autumn. It’s cold without my sweater.

The Polish Girl – Watercolor – 14 x 17 inches.

“It must be colder at home. I’ll be back in time for the first snow. November. Too soon.

“Tomorrow I’ll put on the long-sleeved blouse, the white one, and walk to the café again for coffee. The American? In the afternoon I’ll paint my toenails blue, blue like the sky above the sea.”

June 31st: A Story

This is a story about sunlight and clouds in a wide blue sky, a pond, a warm, green day in a summer many years ago, and the discovery of a lost friend. But it begins years before that with a day of rainstorms and tears, a sad day of leaving people you love and who love you.

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