Sunday, January 01, 2006

New Year's Gray
9x12, oil/mounted canvas
It's the first day of the new year and where was I ??? Outside, plein air painting of course! Damp, gray and slushy on the marsh today. I'm glad to be inside now having hot soup for lunch and enjoying the lights on the Christmas Tree one last time before it comes down this afternoon. A new year always hold forth such promise and possibilities, a clean palette and a new canvas so to speak. I'm looking forward to many days observing, interacting with, and painting the natural world. It's so good to be tuned into the rhythm and flow of nature...it brings me a lot of joy and I hope my paintings bring that joy to others. Happy New Year!
Time Out
In January
the year, which has been breathing in since midsummer,
holds its breath for a moment
before it begins to exhale.
And nothing happens!
The snow falls;
the snowplow doesn't get here;
the horses stay in the barn telling stories to one
another;
the days pass, and no one gets any older.
Today it is zero outside, with a groaning northeast wind;
the snow is flying so thickly that the windows are quite
dark.
My house feels like a warm hollow in a drift,
and I give myself up to its pleasures---
keeping lots of wood in the stove, boiling beans all day,
playing the piano, reading Gilgamesh once again,
and feeling completely safe
because the world cannot harm anyone while I stay here,
dark inside the whiteness,
and light inside the darkness,
neither coming nor going,
neither working nor playing,
neither awake nor asleep.
Kate Barnes, from Where the Deer Were

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jan--I love this painting and the poem. Thanks for posting tem both! Sara , your art student

Jan Blencowe said...

Hi Sara...thanks so much for taking the time to visit!! Keep painting!!

Cheers,
jan