Happy Harvest Moon

The past few days have yielded much fruit for me - spiritually, emotionally, and in the richness of the love of my friends. I feel a shift in my expression, the hard lines of precision and the need to conform to realism are fading, and my art is beginning to take a new direction. Going back to the title of this blog, I have been reminded that art is not imitation, it is expression. At my best, a realistic copy of something is just that, a copy, and it will be imperfect at best. My friend Bill encouraged me to "loosen up," and use paint - cover my canvas, don't paint so "thin."
And my friend, Johny encouraged me by saying, "When most artists think about this (still life), they think of the word 'still." And the real artists think about 'life'." I had an inspiration last night to paint from a sketch I did in the late afternoon, right before sunset. I sat in the grass and sketched a pumpkin in the early evening light. I took the image in my head and finished it last night in the studio. I don't do a lot of still life paintings, but I see things all the time I think would make a cool painting. I see this as a harvest of what I have been tending all year. And the Harvest Moon last few days has been an awesome sight.

"Harvest Moon Calabasa" Oil on canvas, 6" x 9"