Balancing Painting

"Balancing" was inspired by memories of climbing trees in the spring. I felt I could reach the sky, that the farmland below me was going to snap its tether any moment. I felt challenged, elated, afraid, deliciously ungrounded and in a delightful state of balanced, but free. Other viewers have described feeling a cool breeze through a country kitchen window; some have described a tinge of meloncholy gazing out waiting for someone. The verticality of the painting is intended to create a feeling of lift, of looking up while the darker more detailed areas on the bottom focus on what's at the center, the steady core. Oil on linen over panel, this vertical painting inspires associations to light and breezes, open windows, shadows in meadows, orchards or even beams on high construction sites. The use of the linen allows delicate shadows and shading underneath the thin oil layers, particuarly in the upper part of the piece. There is some heavy digging in in the bottom part where the paint is thicker, more substantial.