First I'd like to thank everyone who has been so helpful with suggestions/comments and emails concerning my hard drive. I have very much missed keeping up with all the blogs I visit daily. I hope to get totally caught up with everyone and everything soon. Thank you all so much!While struggling with this painting and with my lingering winter, I happened to be reading a book about the history of color in art, and one chapter dealt with black. The most interesting line suddenly leapt off the page. It was that Matisse made the observation that Manet and Renoir turned “black into a light.” Suddenly it all made sense to me, not in the way Matisse had intended, but it was just the thing I needed to hear. I immediately saw light everywhere, in my bow and in my winter. I was able to finish up this painting with the thought that I already knew, but just needed to be reminded of. That thought is not just that there will always be light in the dark, but that by trying to understand my dark I can turn it into a light. And sure enough, as I’ve finally finished up this painting, the first signs of spring have come.
