"When dawn spreads its paintbrush on the plain, spilling purple... ," Sons of the Pioneers theme for TV show "Wagon Train." Dawn on the mythic Santa Fe Trail, New Mexico, looking toward Raton from Cimarron. -- Clarkphoto. A curmudgeon artist's musings melding metaphors and journalism, for readers in more than 150 countries.

Saturday, July 4, 2020

A quiet Fourth of July

"Where the Fourth of July is Quiet," 5 x 7 watercolor, 140 lb Fabriano Artistico extra white cold press paper
"Quiet."
How do you paint that?  Doodlewash's #WorldWatercolorMonth made that today's  prompt. 
Something abstract? I don't usually think that way, and admire those who can do so, though I've experimented some with it. I've been reading Natalie Goldberg's Living Color-Painting, Writing and the Bones of Seeing, where she talks about moving in that direction.
But I have more reading and looking to do, but one person she tells about told her that all art has some abstraction in it. My greatest hinderance in painting is being too uptight. My best work is where I let myself go, and paint what I feel or think, without worrying about details.
Thus came today's watercolor response to the prompt, and we need some quiet in these days of pandemic, racist and political noise.
Some of the most quiet places I know are cemeteries, and I've often tried to paint the veterans' grave stones at Oakwood not far from our house.
Fourth of July isn't usually quiet, but it is in cemeteries, veterans' graves decorated with the American flag. 

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