Miss Ann's Grapefruit

I have been working on a painting of some grapefruit given to me on Thanksgiving 2012.  The actual grapefruit is long gone, but at the time, I'd thanked my new friend, Ann, lined up the grapefruit on a window ledge and taken photos...then juxtaposed the photos with reflections into interesting visuals.  Someday you'll see that vision...perhaps painted on metal and/or glass, or possibly as a sculpture.

Today, I'm posting an initial painting, "Miss Ann's Grapefruit I" because it is the first painting made from these images. The setting is contemporary and the feeling is ancient.  What is more comforting than a window blowing a light breeze and sheer cloth hangings over any object?  Many times, at the Island, I'd just open the door and let the breeze blow.  Today I remember that feeling and that look...the sun almost blinds with its holy light and the faint scent of citrus begs to be dabbed behind the ear. Oh...wonderful life...and other savory things.

'Miss Ann's Grapefruit"
Oil on wood panel  10" x 36" x 4"

Note: Top image is detail of the full painting.

River Wanderings

See the new painting posted today on DailyPaintworks.  Orange Orbit I  (24" x 18") pushes time, memory, and space. It is a little painting that invites you in to think. 

Now on to colors of the season...
The Chattahoochee River welcomes me back, still making room along its banks for my wanderings.  This time of year it beckons with its flirty breezes and bright trimmings.  Saturday's trip brought brilliant, sun-filled yellows, sugary oranges and shimmery reds.  How delicious! 

Stay tuned for images of new work.

Mountain Plays Light Songs....

 Returning to the mountainous terrains, I discover new forms that play against and with each other.  Light has its own qualities, sings differently than the lowlands, and quickly disappears into the multitudes of shadows.  Infinite, yet basic, natural shapes catch and hold a perfect balance within shared colors, values, and lines. 

Next time you are watching a sunset, squint your eyes.  The immediate vision of the whole – the all in a holy, magic moment – tells the entire story.

© 2013

The Plains of the Southeast....

 

                                          ~ Carol Roddenberry
                                                        Oranges on a Beach (c) 2013
                                                       Oil on canvas, 30" x 30" 
                                                       Inspired by a beach picnic on St. Simons Island, GA
                                                       Will post on 10/09/13 to  http://www.dailypaintworks.com
                                                                                                                                
You have to take the plains where you can find them; sometimes they are in the middle of the country, sometimes they are found in a different geographical sense, altogether.  In the Southeast, you can find nice, flat, plains-like places in Florida, along the beaches anywhere and throughout the state. Further north, all along the long, hot, flat roads of South Georgia and Alabama, where crops grow tended, or not, people long for the ocean winds. These long, plains-like views also sing of the wind-swept plains, but with humidity.  Everyone prays for a little breeze...an old time zephyr, heck, even a breezy storm will do. The land is flat, and it leaves more visual real-estate for the sky. 

In Florida, these winds don't need to be invited; they can flow right across the state going east or west, it matters not, just know that the breeze will find you and flirt. In the long spaces between ocean waters along other southeastern states, picnics near the ocean become visions in the minds of those who remain land-bound.

A picnic is good wherever you find it, like the long-view of a plain part of land - and it is fine to occur in your mind.  Like us, the best picnics are created with simple forms, some objects that seem to visit in the space provided, and a linen napkin stretched out like a beach towel.  The breeze is on its way.
~ Roddenberry (c) 2013

Longer Journeys Lead Home....

Thank you for your following...even though I, at times, take a time break.

Moving to the Island felt like I was 'coming home'...and so does moving back to the city.  In fact, I now believe that wherever I am somehow feels like home.  Has this been a paradigm shift, or merely a shift in perception?  Or, perhaps, it is the persistence of vision coming into play.

Life explores how that feels and painting expresses how I see it. 

Portal: Time Elements I

Oil on Canvas

30" x 30" gallery wrap

Taylor Kinzel Gallery, Roswell, GA

 

The Invitation
Life invites us into

Our realms of difference,

Our rooms of companionship,

Our halls of passing, and

Our touching of energies.

Calling their reminders

To us all.

Of comfort, of place,

Of meetings,

Of missings.

Wrapped around eternity

Silk scarf of calling,

Wind whipped, yet

Catching in the time

Of Human time.

Does this calm, 

This disturbing song,

This slight fog,

Weigh much?

Not much, but all.

~  Carol Roddenberry
     October 5, 2013 (c)

Mornings have been foggy...

Sun burns through during the day,
People look up and around.
More bounce to steps,
Activity has a different sound.
~ CR (c) 2013

In the studio today, painting resumes.  Following the holidays, regular work is refreshing...the smell of paint, the touch of a smooth finish being polished to show, remembering a conversation of support - for self or another. 

In this place, light has a magical quality, and quicksilver changes show up in finished work like an old friend. 

Here is a new one.   

"Fruit on the Beach"  (Oil on wood panel)
Sometimes a person's persistence of vision has a correspondence with
memories.  Visual references that connect the senses also make memories.
When choosing a backdrop for a still life, the sky with a bit of haziness on the horizon,
and a patch of sand work just fine. 
www.johncollettefineart.com

New Island...New Work

The Island is actually very old, often a topic for authors and artists, yet a welcome discovery to all who come to stay awhile. Where you come from geographically is not a criteria; where you come from, within your own vision, hopes, dreams...crushed or expectant...breathes you over the causeway and settles you in. 

This visual and written journey, which I welcome you to join, explores the life wonder - past and present.  The paintings and poems that flow, some days magically...some days not - and the adventure of exploration and peace that knit the future will be the building blocks.  Most of all, as it is for me, this is an online spot to come and rest your eyes and minds - when the world seems to be battering, just one moment too much, at your door. 

This painting, "White Grapes Study I" (oil on wood panel - www.johncollettefineart.com)   is one of the paintings in a contemporary still life series that I began in 2012. This work reveals the openness of the air, land and water on and around the island, and all the elements that swirl around all of us no matter where we are...always moving, yet with a perfect stillness that centers.

My blog is called "Persistence of Vision" which is something that happens in the way our bodies work to enable sight - at many different levels. I will write more about this.