Forget Me Not!

"Forget Me Not!", 11x14", oil on canvas

My 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!"

The Miracle of Spring

There is so much more to painting outdoor then simply adding paint to canvas. Taking time to wonder and to really see the world around you is one of its greatest joys. The truth of this was brought home to me today as I sat in the sun next to a pond painting the tree study above.

Spring is such an extraordinarily exciting time of year. The air virtually vibrates with energy as days lengthen and new growth emerges from earth nourished by life-giving water moving through the ground on its march to the sea. As I painted near a muddy seep at the bottom of a hill I thought of the miracle of life that lay at my feet.

The movement of water in the mud was nearly invisible to the eye. Only by sitting and staring at a water filled deer track did I begin to be aware of its gentle flow ebbing towards the marshy pond in front of me. This particular pond, several acres in size, has no visible outlet. It is encircled by higher ground all around. To leave this pond water must either evaporate or flow underground.

To the east about a quarter of a mile is a large marsh with open water at its center that wildfowl love as it has been set aside as a sanctuary. On its eastern edge is a small freshet that falls quickly to a channel running north and south. Water in this channel flows north towards Vermilion Creek then to the Looking Glass River and finally the Grand River which empties into Lake Michigan near Muskegon.

As I considered the muddy deer track, I envisioned it's scant cup of water flowing along underground eventually merging with the waters of the nearby sanctuary, then racing down the eastern freshet to the channel and beyond on its trip to Lake Michigan, over 100 miles away. As a child, the book "Paddle to the Sea" fired my imagination and today, many decades later, water oozing in a muddy deer track reignited the miracle of a Spring thaw for me.