"Forget Me Not!", 11x14", oil on canvasMy summer has been chopped up as far as painting vs. social interchange and family commitments are concerned. I find it nearly impossible to keep focused on my art when schedules and people come and go and change constantly. The only thing that seems to get me centered and technically back on track is to drop large projects and go back to either doing small simple studies or finishing smaller works that seem to accumulate in my studio in droves. "Forget Me Not!" is one such painting.
I started but didn't get too far with this as a plein air piece when painting one evening near Harrisville, MI in early summer. Usually, I wipe such a brief start off the canvas but this had a good feeling and the subject remained in a somewhat sketched in mode. After returning from Mackinac Island this year I was looking at this canvas and realized how much it reminded me of the unique woodlands of Mackinac Island. I decided then and there to alter it into a studio painting of my favorite Island wildflowers which grow there profusely. As I love the more intimate parts of Mackinac Island, not what the tourists usually see, it was fitting that the painting be titled with its double meaning, "Forget Me Not!"
