Walnut Bayou Lane was a joy to work on, from start to finish. Inspired one morning in a nearby orchard, I was filled with the sense that THIS painting was going to be fun! The colors of the sunrise in the center is a near exact match to the yellows on the cover of Start Where You Are, a book I was reading at the time; I can't help but think my predilections of hope and color were influenced by Pema Chodron's own work, so I'll leave you with some of her words:
When you begin to touch your heart or let your heart be touched, you begin to discover that it's bottomless, that it doesn't have any resolution, that this heart is huge, vast, and limitless. You begin to discover how much warmth and gentleness is there, as well as how much space.
after about 3 hours of work
after about 6 hours of work
after about 11 hours work
Walnut Bayou Lane. 2015. Oil on panel. 60 x 48 inches.