The moods of rain

"Rainy Day<' 5 x 7 140 lb. Fabriano Artistico rough press 

Today I heard Willie Nelson's plaintive voice singing "Blue eyes crying the the rain."

Rain brings many moods, and memories of as many songs to me. And the Bible is full of references to life-giving rain.

As the skies clouded up again today, with more rain promised, several of them ran though my head, some romantic,  some nostalgic, a few happy, and many more sad.

When you grow up in the arid southwest, you always notice rain, and look forward to the building clouds and rain of the early fall monsoon season. Those too bring memories and moods.

Much of the country has had too much or too little rain this year. Here in Oklahoma, on the eastern Great Plains, I'm thankful for the cooler temperatures, and abundant rainfall...and the multiple memories.

Today's little watercolor, out of response to those memories and moods.

How time slips away

"How time slips away," 5 x 7 watercolor 300 lb d'Arhecs rough press

"Ain't it funny how time slips away" is one of my favorite songs, especially sung by Willie Nelson.

"It's been a long, long time" pretty well sums up life's journey, more so as I get older, and the emotion of times past, of living, of loss seem to especially fit his voice.

Many things bring it to my mind these days, especially for some reason on Sundays. Today, just sitting on the back porch, slight drizzle, moving clouds, bird song,  changing  greenery..."as time slips away." I also thought of Thomas Wolfe's novel, "Of Time and the River." 

What about today will you remember? Did you enjoy the present moments? 

Today's semi-abstract watercolor has been in my imagination for a while, and it just seemed to pour out, "as time slips away. 

The Highwayman, 5 x 7 watercolor

Listening to The Highwaymen, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, et. al. We are all on the highway, led by unicorns.

That Lonesome Road, watercolor

Lonesome Road, watercolor, 5.5 by 7.5 300 ;b. d'Arches

At Trinity Presbyterian Church on 23rd Street in Oklahoma City recently, as the members stood up and asked for prayers and recounted their trials and tribulations, the wonderfully talented and always smiling pianist broke into song, one I hadn't heard before, "You gotta walk that lonesome valley."

It's listed in the African American Heritage Hymnal,  but the congregation didn't need the book. I went because I feel welcome in the small congregation, and journalist and former student Richard Mize is the pastor, full of rural aphorisms and stories.

Their version is a little different than Woody’s, adding the lines

"Jesus walked that lonesome valley

He had to walk it by himself”

Woody’s version includes

“You gotta walk that lonesome valley,

You got walk it by yourself,

Nobody here can walk it for you,

You gotta walk it by yourself…

There’s a road that leads to glory

Through a valley far away.”

These helped inspire today’s watercolor effort, as I have been thinking about our journeys in time—a universal theme, and being alone, or lonesome (two different things). Though we are never as alone as we sometimes imagine, "surrounded by "a cloud of witnesses," --the lives we've touched are always with us.

Other songs:

• "Look down, look down that lonesome road/ Before you travel on."--Gene Austin, Frank Sinatra
• "Are you lonesome tonight,/Do you miss me tonight?" - Elvis
• "I'm so lonesome I could cry," -Hank Williams
• "I fall to pieces."  -Patsy Cline
• "You were always on my mind" -Willie Nelson

Day 23 of WorldWatercolorMonth challenge

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Palette-Quin gold, umbers, siennas, thalo blue, a touch of cad red.

As time slips away - watercolor

"As time slips away" watercolor, 5.5 ny 7.5, 300 lb. d'Arches

Time. Salvador Dali is a favorite artist of mine. His bizarre, surrealistic paintings, especially The Persistence of Memory  with the melted clocks speaks to me about the artificiality and tyranny of time that we worship and are enslaved by.
I'm reminded of Thomas Wolfe's Of Time and the River, and especially Willie Nelson's song "Gee, ain't it funny how time slips away" as I get older, and read more about Quantum physics, relativity, "time," and eternity.
 It is not important to "live long and prosper," but only to live well, because time only flows past us, as we are mired in present tense. Isn't that the meaning of "I Am that I Am"? Are we not all? Time is surreal. Are we just footprints in the drifting sand of time, our lives fading with each step? Have we enjoyed the feel of sand between our toes?
Time slips away. Memories. Longing. Today's watercolor. 

Day 22 of WorldWatercolorMonth challenge.

Palette--What are thecolorsof time?

"Well, hello there
My, it's been a long, long time
How am I doing?
Oh, I guess that I'm doing fine

It's been so long now,
But it seems now, that it was only yesterday
Gee, ain't it funny, how time slips away."