TBT - Green Orchid Watercolor

Orchid in Green, 7 x 10" watercolor on paper
© Helen Read

This little orchid watercolor is from 5 years ago!  There aren't too many paintings from that time still sitting in my studio, but this one is ... and it needs a new home!   Maybe a little bit of green would bring spring time hope to you during this long siege of winter ... or make a nice St. Patrick's Day gift!??
Its available and ready to send!


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Forest Secrets

Forest Secrets, 6.5 x 9" Oil Pastel on Illustration Board
© Helen Read 

A couple lines from a Pablo Neruda poem, Lost in the Forest, caught my attention: 

"... Something from far off it seemed
deep and secret to me, hidden by the earth..."

Have you ever felt the secrets of the forest press in as you've journeyed through?  Mysterious, lovely ... yet, the unknown awaits.   This can be true literally or figuratively.  It seems that I'm ever on that journey, finding my way through - captured by the beauty, and yet also containing that measure of uncertainty for all it holds.
 
And so I remember this: 
"Don't fret or worry.  Instead of worrying, pray!  Let requests and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns.  Before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down."   Philippians 4:6-7 From The Message

 

Island Sunset

Island Sunset  10x8" Oil on gessoed panel 

©2015 Helen Read

SOLD

Can you hear the chirp of the night insects and the frogs as the sun sets?  Can you feel the warm breeze and hear the quiet rustle of the sea grasses?  Do you hear the quiet call of a few shore birds at the end of the day? 
This was the setting this summer as I sat watching the sun slip behind the horizon just a few miles off the coast of Georgia on Jekyll Island.  The peace and quiet of the sunset was truly breath taking.  The dramatic sky of dark clouds shot through with vivid colors, almost beyond description, was lovely to watch - and then it began to dissolve into darkness.  But this moment was captured and it quietly stands still for time. 

Setting Sun -- a work in progress

This is still a work in progress.  I am working on how to portray a dramatic sky, just as night is falling - without it being too garish and yet trying to depict the colors and value changes authentically. 

I took this photo during the summer as I watched night descend over the water on the eastern coast of Georgia.  The colors were just spectacular - unreal!  

The foreground hasn't been painted yet - the values are very dark with sea grasses in clumps. I hope to post the final painting in the very near future. 

This is 8x10 and I have used oil on a gessoed board. 

.... Its in that awkward in-between stage

Do you ever feel that way?  I do...  all the time.  I don't remember ever Not feeling that way along the way in any work of art I'm working on!  And its never comfortable... and I often feel like starting again - or throwing it out.  But, usually when I keep working through the problems, I find I work through it some how.   But, in the meantime, its frustrating.     So there ya have it!  That's what I am feeling about this one right now.    I'm taking a little break from it!