Colors ~ Sunrise Sky 'Intuitive Palette' ~ Painting Workshop ~ Provincetown Art Association and Museum

"The whole world, as we experience it visually, comes to us through the mystic realm of color. Our entire being is nourished by it. This mystic quality of color should likewise find expression in a work of art." 

Hans Hofmann

"My aim in painting is to create pulsating, luminous, and open surfaces that emanate a mystic light, in accordance with my deepest insight into the experience of life and nature." 

Hans Hofmann

"Colors must fit together as pieces in a puzzle or cogs in a wheel." Hans Hofmann

"Color is a plastic means of creating intervals . . . color harmonics produced by special relationships, or tensions. We differentiate now between formal tensions and color tensions, just as we differentiate in music between counterpoint and harmony."    Hans Hofmann

"Being inexhaustible, life and nature are a constant stimulus for a creative mind." Hans Hofmann

Beginning . . .  First day~ Color Workshop with Robert Henry Provincetown Art Association and Museum 

It is not the form that dictates the color, but the color that brings out the form." Hans Hofmann

Still only a beginning ~ Second Day ~ Color Workshop with Robert Henry Provincetown Art Association and Museum

"An idea can only be materialized with the help of a medium of expression, the inherent qualities of which must be surely sensed and understood in order to become the carrier of an idea." Hans Hofmann

Beginning . . . Third day ~ Color Workshop with Robert Henry Provincetown Art Association and Museum

"When the impulses which stir us to profound emotion are integrated with the medium of expression, every interview of the soul may become art. This is contingent upon mastery of the medium." 

Hans Hofmann

"In nature, light creates the color. In the picture, color creates the light." Hans Hofmann

Pieces of the sunrise sky ~ Left photo below

In March I had the great privilege of attending a painting workshop at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum taught by a former student of Hans Hofmann.
Robert Henry is a fabulous artist/painter/teacher whose relaxed and generous teaching style made the three day color workshop so rewarding.
I begin each day by stepping out of our cottage and standing on the dunes of North Truro bathed by the light and colors of the sunrise and ocean. Later, after lunch, I enter the museum painting studio and apply paint to canvas, while Bob shares his vast knowledge and interpretations of color. Three hours or so later I am feeling, thinking, seeing, sensing and cleaning color off my brushes . . . then back in nature with J. walking, exploring, dining and once again bathing in the vibrant colors of the sun as it vanishes beyond the ocean.
It had not occurred to me, until I began assembling this piece together, that the colors of the sunrise were intuitively chosen by me for the palette of my small paintings.
I have such a long journey to "master the medium". . .  though it is often a struggle, the process is ever enriching. 

Pieces of the sunrise sky ~ right photo above 

I published a post on the amazing Right whales off of Race Point Lighthouse over at Focusing On Wildlife. It was truly a spectacular event!

Meanwhile out in the gardens and sky here at Flower Hill Farm . . .

In keeping with our color theme . . . here is a glimpse of BLUE ~ a peek at a future posting.
The male and female bluebirds are busy guarding and building their nest.
The middle photo is the female and the far right is of the male. The female bluebird's head is not quite the intensity of blue found in the male bluebird. The greens and grays in the background enhance the colors intensity.
What would you call this blue? Cobalt, Ultramarine or Cerulean?
It does not come out of a tube for sure.
If you click on this photograph you can see the colors more vividly.

Hanging in a blue sky April's full moon is known as the Full Pink Moon (grass pink or ground phlox) or 'sprouting grass moon' . . . Native Americans along the coast call it Full Fish Moon, in honor of shad returning to streams to spawn. The first full moon of spring is also known as the Paschal Full Moon.
Passover or Easter . . . whichever you celebrate (or perhaps another ritual) . . . I hope it was a good time with family and friends.
May light fall through your prisms . . . may color inspire and warm your heart . . . may there be double rainbows after soaking storms.
I gladly dance beneath the moon for rain.
Peace.

Flower Hill Farm BUTTERFLIES OF 2011 - OTHER LEPIDOPTERA FAVORITES

Hummingbird clearwing Hemaris thysbe, also known as Hummingbird moth, is out in the gardens and fields sipping nectar during the day and often at dusk. 

People sometimes confuse Hummingbird clearwings with a real hummingbird due to its habit of hovering while feeding with its long proboscis. Host plants include honeysuckle, hawthorns, plums, cherries and snowberries.

Note the difference in the two species above and below. 

Snowberry clearwing Hemaris diffinis is more black but its coloration can vary. 

As its name implies . . .  this clearwing relies on snowberry. Other host plants are honeysuckle and dogbane.  Snowberry clearwings also fly about in the daytime and are more often seen in the summer months. 

All of the clearwings or Hummingbird moths are spritely flyers and like many butterflies they depend on our not being too fastidious with our clearing of debris, for they need leaves to spin within their cocoons and detritus along the ground offers protective covering through the cold winter months, while the pupa wait for spring. 

The lovely pale green Luna moth Actias luna, is one of the largest moth species in North America and is only active in the dark hours of night. Females can lay up to two hundred eggs. Here at Flower Hill Farm our Shagbark Hickory, White birch, Walnuts and even Sumac act as host plants. The caterpillars munch on leaves and shed their skin five times, as their relative butterflies and then overwinter in their silky cocoons beneath the chosen host plant. 

The adults have no mouth parts . . . imagine a simple life of sleep, flying and mating for one week only and you have an idea of the life of an adult Luna moth.

I forget to turn off a light the night this Luna moth comes to visit. Early next morning I carefully carry the sleeping moth inside, so that the birds will not have an unfair advantage. He sleeps all day and when the curtain of night falls, I hold him out to the dark air and watch as the beautiful creature takes his ghostly flight into a night of pursuing pleasure.  

They have amazingly strong wings but sometimes fall prey to our beloved bats.

A member of the Saturniidae family, Luna moths only have one brood here in the northeast. I usually see them in May but the one above was found in June. It looks like it might be already a few days old.

Another member of the Saturniidae family, the Rosy maple moth Dryocampa rubicunda also has no need of a mouth for they too do not eat as adults. Much smaller than their Luna cousins, the Rosy maple moths will also be attracted to a light and then will sleep through the night and next day. If a light is accidentally left on, I try to get them to fly into nearby plants in order to hide from birds. Females lay eggs on leaves of oak, sugar maple and other maples. The caterpillars spin a cocoon and sleep through the winter months. 

A mystery moth in the clutch of a flower crab spider. 

Moths can be very beautiful and their caterpillars can be very striking too. 

White Spotted Sable Moth Anania funebris, can be found in our fields and gardens in the daylight. 

The host plant is Goldenrod.

Intricately patterned mystery moth found on tree peony leaf.

Lovely white mystery moth with a yellow line through both wings found on iris. 

I missed Katarina's Floral Friday because I was enjoying a break with a dear friend by the sea . . .  and studying color with a fabulous expressionist painter and teacher through Provincetown Art Association and Museum.
Though there is not a wildflower within any of these photos the moths are pretty wild and hopefully considered wild enough for Gail's Wildflower shadings. 

The light and colors in Wellfleet, North Truro and Provincetown were magical! 

Wildlife was wondrous. 

I came home to spring but tonight is dipping down into the teens. Ouch! 

I think it fitting that upon arriving home . . . my first wildlife encounter in the gardens would be this magnificent Turkey vulture. (An amazing encounter I will share later.)

My teacher has encouraged me to use black paint in my work. 

Black can surely evoke power.
Turkey vultures are certainly more 'photogenic' than I had imagined. Attractive might be a stretch but truly . . . what a magnificent creature. 

Happy Spring to All! 

Beginnings and Endings Days and Months Painted Sky and Canvas

Sunrise Over Mount Holyoke Range November 29, 2011

Fairies come out to celebrate the new day. 

Mount Tom at Sunrise November 29, 2011

The magical time just at the beginning and end of each day, where the sky becomes a vivid, living painting, is well worth honoring within silence, reverence and reverie. From my home and retreat at Flower Hill Farm the view allows a spectacular promise at those early and later moments . . . especially as November takes its leave of us. Clouds and mists of yesterdays sunrise (in the photos above) reflect and refract colors and light . . .  while holding to the sky a striking palette . . .  truly staggering and startling the imagination and spirit of this observer. It is a painting in constant movement as clouds float, stretch and swell into the atmosphere. Then . . .  the luminous composition fades . . .  as a wisp of smoke or a whisper . . . until the day is finished and a new painting, as seen below, fills the canopy of sky in that twinkling of time before gray and darkness befalls. 

Mount Tom at Sunset November 29, 2011

Mount Holyoke Sunset November 29, 2011

  

Today this last morning of November begins with a stratospheric light show. Tomorrow will bring the first December sunrise of 2011 . . . the end of one day . . . one month . . . and beginnings of another. Nearly the end of a year. November has been mild with a slew of sunny, warm days, allowing for shoeless walks along the North Truro shore and here at Flower Hill Farm many more days, and evenings too, with windows and doors flung wide open. Oh, had I been able . . . it was a great month to garden.

Dramatic light-show when the sun appears to moves into the thick blanket of clouds. 

Red-bellied Woodpecker

While working on this post flocks with hundreds of birds were filling the sky, so I had to pause and fetch my camera to try to capture them, if only to identify the species. I could not, but what a joyous sighting for me in my own dear Rock Maple . . . a first here at Flower Hill (for me) . . . a Red-bellied Woodpecker!! My first sighting was earlier in the year at a Great Blue Heron Rookery. I shared my experience of the rookery at Native Plants and Wildlife Gardens. 

November nearly ending now . . . offers gifts of beautifully painted sky and birds. Bluebirds are sweetly singing their soft and melodious songs and calls.  I am glad and grateful for having been in the moment and able to accept them all . . . gifts and songs . . . though none were intended for me at all. It is only for me to take the time to notice. I am very fortunate to be in such a place and to have the time.

At November's end I begin a new painting. This is an underpainting. I plan to use lots of yellows and pale greens which is why I chose the compliment of purple. Plans can change. I always find this early stage exciting . . . something becoming . . . a mystery with possible promise (If I destroy it I can always cover it and begin anew). Alas, my paintings are pale in beauty when seen next to such stunning works of Mother Nature, but then I am not trying to copy nature . . . only to find my own voice and way of expressing the feelings I find in my connection to nature. Nature all around me is my muse. 

(My Painting process and some works over the last few years can be seen above just under the header photo by clicking on the 'Page' titles.) 

I will bid farewell to November and welcome December in the morning. 

Let's not forget the moon, which is a mirror to our sun. Here another beginning and ending  'Moonlit' for Katarina of Roses and Stuff for now it is Blooming Friday. Happy Roman Holiday K.