Episode 12 - Painting in Your Own Backyard

Sorry, folks, we seem to have been experiencing some technical difficulties. We've followed Podbean's advice and uploaded the m4a file again. Hope it plays better than the first version, but that's what you get for working in a thunderstorm!

   

David - Now Is the Hour (detail)               Connie - A Subtle Scent (detail)

Despite thunderstorms and heavy rain, here we are again with Episode 12 - Painting in Your Own Backyard.

From Monet's garden in Giverny to Celia Thaxter's garden on the Isle of Shoals, made famous by Childe Hassam, and all points in between, the garden has long been a source of stimulus and joy to the artist. And even if you don't have water lily pools or lengths of rocky coastline in your backyard, that doesn't mean it can't be a source of inspiration to you.  

Some artists like a formal manicured look, others favor the random sowing of seeds  and trust in nature and good luck to have a riot of color by summer. Or you could have a more workaday look as seen in Paul Cornoyer's painting, My Studio, East Gloucester, oil on canvas, 18x24, private collection (below). 

The possibilities are endless, but sometimes we overlook the beauty of what is right under our noses  and search farther afield, sometimes at great inconvenience, to find the 'perfect composition.' Oftentimes, we just need to add the odd note, or the odd model, to make our back yards perfect, as in 'Gossiping Geishas,' by David Montgomery, (private collection, below) executed during one of David Curtis' Figure in the Garden summer classes.  

 

So put away your maps and forget about driving half a day to select your next composition, and look closer to home for overlooked vistas or intimate corners of the shrubbery. Go ahead - paint in your own back yard. In fact, send us some of your efforts, and we'll post our favorites! 

Until next week, it's goodbye from me, Judy Curtis, and it's goodbye from them, David Curtis and Connie Nagle.