Grass is boss today!

The theme of grass in this body of recent work is giving me so much joy, excitement and motivation to paint. I loved standing, moving, gesturing and repeating the brushstrokes of the large works. It was like a workout. The grass is taking me back to my roots of Tennessee. The freedom of going outside for hours with neighborhood friends or finding solitude on a small little island of grass in the middle of the creek. I have been curious what a blade of grass looks like under a microscope. I’d like to do see it for myself, but found several images like this

So funny to me that the cross section of grass is a series of colorful cells gathered together with the likeness of happy faces. Stunned!! Noticing too the wavy movement, up and down, in and out with spikes clinging and fading in color.

My thoughts today about process of the grass series is interesting in that the groundwork of the grass was intuitive, natural and somewhat spontaneous. I tried hard to position myself in the grass like laying down in tall grass by the creek in Tennessee and looking up at the sky

Swimming in a sunny spot of a pond in Maine

Walking along the marsh grass in Rhode Island

And searching for the periwinkle snails in the spartina of Savannah.

I am excited about the theme of grass being an object we all share in the enjoyment of sitting on it, running through it having a picnic or watching an outdoor event on it. Grass gets so used and I have mentioned can be a hassle some days or an object of envy. So when I began to add color in the negative space, the thought crossed my mind that grass gets to be boss today in telling me where to apply color. Reminded me of the yellow #2 pencils of my classroom studio that get chewed, suffer eraser loss, sharpened to an inch, swept away and lost in the cracks of school, until the day pencils get to boss the Sharpie pen around on projects that require outlining. There are pros and cons to everything and to think the cells of grass are always smiling is incredible.

I am motivated to continue this energy of gesture and color working together in composition through the subject of grass.