So much has happened in my life since I last wrote.  Lots of emotional stuff... which definitely influences the way I see the world.  It's not appropriate that I share the details, as this is not really the forum for my emotional life.  But my emotional life does indeed influence how my world sees color. 

I was recently in Florida visiting my family.  I love going to Florida so I can once again truly appreciate the sky.  There is so much of it with so little pollution that the clarity of blues and whites and grays is so in your face it is breathtaking.  I've lived in many place throughout the US and the sky is always how I measure how right things are in the world.  Of course the sky changes, weather and seasons affect its color and line and emotion.  The bright happy blue can flip to an ominous roiling gray tinged with shades of green in the flash of a few moments in time. 

My first visit to Florida in November was a happy one, a family event which brought people together from near an far, favorite cousins from Canada visiting Florida for the first time in many years.  The sun was out, the sky was gloriously blue with huge puffy clouds.  All was right with the world.  Florida is funny, though, because it can be raining on one side of the street and sunny on the other.  Just like life.  I returned to Florida twice within a month, the second time more solemn.  It seemed as though nature knew things were going to shift.  The skies became cloudy, gray, and dim.  Rains fell, and everything was solemn. 

Why am I writing about this?  Because emotions color us and our world.  I have painted through grief before and found solace in grayed down blues and hazy surfaces.  I've discovered myself painting doorways when I had not planned on it.  Art and color are expressions of who we are and how we see the world.  They heal us and protect us when we are not able to tolerate the glare of bright raw color. 

I find that I need to put away my favorite transparent colors and seek out the solid weighty pigments found in ochres, umbers,and siennas at times like this.  I don't really want to see everything, it is better for some things to be obscured and visually unavailable.  References are sufficient, in your face images don't seem appropriate.  I mediate my bright colors with micaceous iron oxide to grey things down and lend grit to their surfaces. 

I'll know when it is time for the bright colors to return.  Maybe it is a good thing it is winter, things all around are ready for a rest.