Carrie’s Painting of the Week – 11/17/10

Mist Before the Mountains

It was a few weeks ago, a Sunday morning, that I had sudden free time, and went to paint with the plein air group of the Wallkill River School. On my way to the site, I was detoured by the remarkable morning mist. I checked out the WRS site, and it was lovely – but it did not compare to this view, this quiet silhouette.

There’s something about mist, about fog, about how interesting something becomes when it is obscured. Put a veil on it and all we want to do is see beneath that veil.

I’m reading a book that’s pushing me to be courageous, to acknowledge the fear and go on. I know from these past few years, making a living painting, what joy and exhilaration there is in doing this, in carrying the fear with me and going ahead anyways.

I will say there is also joy and security in a regular paycheck, and affordable benefits – but what we give up to get that joy and security!

Even in a life with those elements, and with far less of the freedom and liberty that an entirely self-directed day gives you, there’s plenty of fear, plenty of courage.

Behind the mist, behind the obscured, we are all creatures of spirit and emotion, passion and terror. It’s great to lift the veil now and again and peer underneath.

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This painting, of the mountains outside Warwick, is available for sale. It is 11×14, oil on canvas. Please email me at carrieBjacobson@gmail.com if you’d like to know more about price and shipping.

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