Are you ready for another person on the East Coast bemoaning the snow that is defiantly falling outside right now? Huge, fluffy snowflakes are swirling outside my window in a circular motion, making me feel like I live in the center of a snow globe. Now, if this were December I would be sitting at the window, tea in hand, oohing and aahing over the beautiful snowflakes and winter wonderland and blah, blah, blah. But it's not December, it's April. And we've had one heck of a long winter, or are continuing to have one heck of a long winter. Spring did not arrive last week, I don't care what the calendar says.
So here I sit looking out the window and I find myself angry at the snow and the gloom. And I keep looking out the window, cursing another cold day, and then I notice the blooming daffodils and pansies out in my garden with the snow falling around them and they look absolutely brilliant....so much brighter and luminous than anything else in the gray landscape today. And what comes to mind is something I learned from my art teacher, which was when something looks kind of blah in a painting and is not as bright as you want it, make whatever is next to it a little darker before trying to lighten up the object. I tried this last week when painting pink tulips that looked flat and not light enough, by darkening the background a little bit, and BAM....the tulips became almost surreal and their magnificence was turned up on notch. So today the drear and the grey is dampening my mood, but it is making the flowers outside especially brilliant.
Finding the beauty in every day is an artist's calling. When I sit down at my easel I am trying to capture the beauty that I see in whatever my subject is. It's easy to focus on conveying the light and beauty, but without the darkness and shadows next to the light there would be no beauty, no contrast. I think what I will take away from today is that the dark is necessary to truly appreciate the brilliance of the light. You cannot have one without the other.
