Pilgrimage

This Thanksgiving Day I count the great blessing of the Georgia O'Keeffe Abstraction Exhibit at the Whitney Museum in NYC. Last Sunday afternoon I roamed the O'Keeffe galleries--often in tears--amazed and overwhelmed by the 120+ paintings on display.

On our drive to NYC, I voiced my great desire to Cherrie that my favorite painting, "59th Street Studio," (1919) might be included in the show. I have only seen this painting in O'Keeffe's Catalogue Raisonne, only imagined its true size--and effect on the viewer. The charcoal and watercolor galleries held early works that hinted of what would come from O'Keeffe. Paintings from 1917-19 revealed the depth of her genius.
I saw it from afar, and was so EXCITED! I worked my way through the gallery in chronological order, like a child opening the small gifts first on xmas morning to get to the last giant box. The pastel, "Blue Flower," with its intensity reminded me of a blue flame pilot light, delighted me yet again. Then I was face to face with a painting I never thought I'd see. "59th Street Studio" has been in a private collection, never exhibited, for decades. Maybe because this show was in NYC, the city of birth for this painting, the owners allowed it to be included?
With the gallery docent free, just for a minute, Cher photographed me with my favorite painting (NO Flash! Don't worry).


Today I give thanks for Georgia O'Keeffe's grand vision, for her perseverance, for her determination to have her say--and for sharing her art with the world.

Whirling Along

My art group meets monthly, with a theme word to guide our efforts. September's word was "flight," followed by "impermanence" in October. I saw images of leaves for each word. Leaves certainly are in flight in Fall and do represent impermanence. I decided the heft of late fall, with winter looming, should be implied in the painting also.

I spent 10 minutes of a woods walk standing in a maple, beech, birch forest watching leaves fall. "Fresh" leaves were lifted by the wind, wandered about aimlessly in air before landing silently. Mature leaves with curled edges were whirling dervishes, spinning in circles with their stems straight up, acting as a rudder of sorts. This was the first time I had truly witnessed leaves falling. Such a gift! My original plan was to overwhelm the viewer with large, falling leaves. This early image has a large beech leaf in the upper left corner, which grows smaller in the end.

Oaks are such powerful trees. With Vermont's warmer winters, oaks may overtake maples. Creating the large oak leaves was easier than creating the maple. Oaks are definite and powerful. They don't try to be more than they are. Oaks are the late show, not fashionable like maples, but worth a look. Maples are three or four ideas at once. Maples are like me some days: Working in three or four rooms at once, very scattered. So I struggled a bit to finish the maple leaf.


The finished painting, Leaf Whirl, hints at distance between the leaves. Some are higher up and tumbling. Others are in your face. The sky is uncertain:
November in Vermont is much like Leaf Whirl. Clouds with hints of blue. Swirling winds. Morning frost followed by bright sunlight.