This painting is based on a scene I photographed at the beautiful Arboretum near Hamilton, New Zealand. The source photo is shown below. I knew from the start this was a very challenging motif for my skill level, so I took it with a light heart and went full tilt at it with simple shapes and lots of color.
The scene was beautiful and had good composition lines, but I felt I had to warm up all the green a bit. I will keep trying to make something of this scene as my skill level improves.
Lots of buzz in the news today. Things happening that could change the future, although nature probably has her own plans for us. Nevertheless, as I potted way in my little studio today, away from news and television, I was reminded of this poem by Wendell Berry, written at the height of the Vietnam war, as he worked away on his farm:
February 2, 1968
In the dark of the moon, in flying snow,
in the dead of winter,
war spreading, families dying, the world in danger,
I walk the rocky hillside, sowing clover.
(Wendell Berry)
Thanks for visiting my blog. I hope you are happy and content.
Fruitful Dark 
Spring green is so difficult to capture and I think you did an outstanding job. Warming up the greens always makes it more lively….Love that poem by Wendell Berry.
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Yes indeed it is difficult – so beautiful to see, but to paint? – very difficult!
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This painting is gorgeous, Fritz.
And thank you for the reminder to “sow clover”no matter the surrounding darkness.
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Thanks for your comment Nadia, and thanks for taking time to stop by my blog and share some thoughts.
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Love the painting, love the poem too.
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Thanks FR!
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Thank you for your thoughts and the Wendell Berry quote. Meaningful today here in the US.
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You are welcome Kit. Thanks for visiting, and all the best to you – must be a challenging time for you.
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The painting is wonderful. Stop telling yourself things are difficult to portray. Are they actually difficult? Or is difficulty something that you encounter by believing it?
If you think it will be difficult, it will be. That’s self hypnosis 101. And meditation 101 is to make a blank of your mind, to observe, to “just observe,” to note the observations and let the picture happen.
Anyway, wonderful painting. Bravo!
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Many thanks Aletha! Yes, I hear what you say, and of course you are right. I guess I meant the challenge of simplifying many leafs and grasses into patches of value and color was greater for me in this painting. But yes, Self Hypnosis 101 indeed!
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