Wheat Field, acrylic on canvas, 20″x20″
©Michelle Basic Hendry, 2008
I learned that the field I had to cross to get this painting was freshly planted with wheat. It looked like neatly spaced rows of grass in a green so rich in light and deep in shadow. I selected three images to end up as paintings from this trip and this one got finished first – inspired by the freshest colour nature provides. The beautiful ruin peeks out through the fresh leaves of long abandoned fruit and hawthorn trees. I remember when I approached the house the sounds of scratching in the walls. The spaces between the window sills and a knot hole were filled with nesting birds!
This one looked simple, but ended up challenging me in every way possible. Using a square canvas immediately presented the need for compositional risks. The colour, the contrast all needed to be stepped up. I was slow to do this one and ended up changing my mind many times before settling on what it became.
This new obsession with abandoned houses and ruins has been a boost for both my creative drive and personally. It has gotten me out my cave, so to speak. So much can be born from the death of something else. Our lives are full of little deaths. To accept them invites back light and LIFE.
Laura
/ May 25, 2008I love that you use the rich, vibrant colours for this. It shows the life all around us with the past never really forgotten.
Helen Read
/ May 25, 2008very nicely done!
Michelle
/ May 25, 2008Thanks Laura! It is thanks to you I even found the place…
Thanks, Helen!
Wayne
/ May 26, 2008Way to go Lazarus .. beautiful. I think I’ll use your inspiration and pull out my camera and get myself some stuff to work on while inside on those hot and bug filled days of summer.
Wayne
/ May 26, 2008forgot .. I, personally, would join the blues or drastically change the sky color on the viewer left so as not to have that sun-glass look to your sky.
Kinsey Barnard
/ May 26, 2008Beautiful! The wheat field looks like a lush, velvet carpet. Makes me want to dive in there and roll in it!
Michelle
/ May 26, 2008Hi Wayne! Thanks…. The photograph is very strange… the blue on the right is really not that blue. So the two holes aren’t actually as vivid on the real thing. You only see the one on the left. Wonder why that happened…?
It does kinda look like sunglasses…
Thanks, Kinsey! It really was lush. This time of year brings on the most incredible greens!
Lana
/ May 26, 2008Lovely! Nice to hear about your new-found inspiration.
You GO girl!
Michelle
/ May 26, 2008**Big Grin**
Thanks Lana!
Jean Levert Hood
/ May 27, 2008Beautiful job, Michelle! Masterful use of those greens!
Michelle
/ May 27, 2008Thanks, Jean..!
Liane Schmidt
/ May 28, 2008Absolutely beautiful. You have captured a picture of heaven.
Blessings & best wishes.
Sincerely,
-Liane Schmidt.
Michelle
/ May 28, 2008Liane – I appreciate the wonderful compliment!