Sky Blue Pink. Juniper Rag. News!

It's always fun to announce good news. My work is featured in the coming issue of Juniper Rag, a beautiful visual arts and lifestyle magazine based in New England. In addition, the Winter 2022 issue of the magazine Rochester Review published a huge photograph of me with my eleven-foot-wide painting The Procession of Hope and Feathers. And I was just accepted for juried membership into the National Association of Women Artists. Looking ahead, I'm beginning a new series of 24" square paintings. Loving the square format!

When I was a child, I lived near the coast of Massachusetts, just where it meets Rhode Island. The light is different when you're by the sea. My mother always called the color of the sky at dawn "sky blue pink", an accurate description if I've ever heard one. It's a glowing blend of pale blue, violet, aqua, pink, and salmon. To recreate it, I under-paint the whole sky in brilliant red, layering ultraviolet, ochre, cobalt, phthalo turquoise and pale yellow on top. That crimson glowing through the layers infuses the sky with the imminent sense of a dawning sun.

Now that Fledgling is done, it's time to start a new painting. I have prepared a 24-inch-square wood panel with this sketch. I played around for weeks with the composition. The painted Caribbean wooden chair, carved with birds, is the only part remaining from my original concept. Egrets came and went, and these are the ones that stayed with me. Four or five different women sat in that chair until I found Lauren, the right one.