Resurrection and Life
A painting's story
I got to try something new this month and I really enjoyed it. This month I tried my hand at oil painting. My first project was painting a 10 x10 canvas to donate to Summerville Rocks Scholarship Fund. The theme is “All Things Summerville”. That could be a lot of things like flowers, churches, or tea, but one thing kept coming back in my head. The lush green ferns that grow in the old oak trees. While I was imagining my painting, these epiphytic plants were all brown and curled up looking more dead than inspiring. Then it happened, finally a well needed fall rain storm. It was only a couple of days of rain, but it was enough to wake these vermillion beauties.
As the rain subsided, I went out and did a quick photo shoot and plotted out my composition. Oil paint is very different from my usual watercolor. I couldn’t just grab a white piece of Arches and begin. I had to put a color ground on my canvas and wait days for it to dry. Patience is not really my thing, but I decided to embrace the process. I slathered an orangey mid value color over the entire canvas and waited. Days later I returned and mixed some colors on the palette. It was rather fun sketching out my design with some burnt sienna and coming back with various shades of green. The thing I noticed about oil paint is it doesn’t really get good until you get a few layers on. Once you have some wet paint on your canvas, you can add different colors and begin to blend them on the canvas.
That is the fun part, until you get carried away and start overworking your painting into one medium tone of dullsville. Time for patience again, and some restraint. I am forced to leave it alone to dry again. My painting and I continued a dance of, “Oh, this is great,” to “Drat. I ruined it,” and back until we reached an agreement. “Yes, it is done.” By the time we were finished, our inspiration ferns were going back to sleep. I still thought it fitting to include them in my final photo.
Tomorrow I am going to present it to the Summerville Art Guild were it will be on display at Coastal Coffee Roasters starting November 4th. It will hang in Summerville’s best coffee shop along with several other 10 x 10 canvases all depicting their own take on “All Things Summerville”. I can’t wait to see them all together! You can view them online and even purchase them here. All proceeds will go to the Summerville Rocks scholarship fund for DD2 high school seniors. I hope you enjoy my painting “Resurrection”.
Resurrection and life. The first time I saw a resurrection fern was in a beautiful majestic oak tree behind Old Town Summerville’s court house at the farmer’s market. I was amazed at those lush green ferns growing on high branches in the tree far from the ground. My first thought was, South Carolina is so vibrant and full of life that these ferns can grow up in the air without any soil. I love the tropical life-giving climate of the Lowcountry. Everywhere you look, there is flourishing life. A tree is not just a tree. It is home to a myriad of flora and fauna and shelter for us all.
Sheila Preston-Ford loves to paint and forage for beauty and truth. Her work can be seen at https://sheila-prestonford.pixels.com/art
I feel like I’m getting a little lesson in oil painting and it awesome! I love the depth you accomplished with contrast. Patience . So rewarding ❤️