here to there

Well, I have not updated my blog or website since last winter, because I am such a slow painter and my process takes so long.

Then I thought, maybe the process of making a painting itself might be interesting. So I have written a series of entries about the little series of magnolia I did this summer, starting from how I got the idea, etc. to the finished paintings.

The story actually starts way down the page on an entry that's titled "Start Here X" with a picture of my studio. So if you read from top to bottom, you are actually going backwards. I think it's cooler if you start at the beginning, myself.

I wish I could have made it less complicated, but with such sophisticated concepts of time, blogs and order my brain is feeble. Thank you for reading anyway! (Even if you cheat and start at the top :)

Brooke

magnolia in death

By now the magnolia was dying, but still so beautiful. In fact I am not really happy with this either... I would like to do the open magnolia on a bigger sheet of paper so that it really has room! I didn't realize my movements to paint it would be so big. But by this time, it was July and the time for magnolias was past. Not even the best trees at the University of Saint Thomas (which almost always have magnolias you can reach) had any left. Oh well. Maybe next summer.

first try, open magnolia

The next day the magnolia was open. I liked the drawing of this painting, but was unhappy with the colors, so I started over again.

new magnolia

This one I was able to get the lovely round form of the magnolia and its upward petals like bird's wings or batman ears, that's what I was looking for.

magnolia second try

The next try... well, the second painting is also usually weird too.. so that was not what I wanted either. Hm, the colors in the real one are not like this at all. Both my photographic and photo shop skills are not the best, but... well, the real colors are much more even in tone, and the yellow much creamier and paler. Anyway.

magnolia first try

This is the first painting I did, but for me, the first painting is always weird. This was not quite right so I did another one. Oh, all of these are oil on paper, by the way.

Magnolia in a bowl beside my bed

I.

magnolia
outstretch your leg
unbend
your head, curl
open your arm.

be a lantern by my bed,
embrace me
when I sleep.

II.

Old magnolia, you are dying
I love your sunset smell of oranges
but see the bruises on your arms.

Rest your hands on your pollen head
and let yourself go back to the moon you came from.

Your soul streaming upwards
leaves fragrance trails of oranges,
cool night air, and something tart, a strain,
like tears.

how to steal a magnolia

Usually my ideas for paintings always start with writings. And the writings about magnolias started because I was in the habit this summer of sort of stealing them.

They are not hard to get. You can snap it right off the tree and it tumbles to the ground with a soft plop and a swish like it's swishing its' skirts. Then you hold it to your heart, cup it like a breast, or like a little fragile white puppy. It smells to me like my great aunt or my childhood friend's grandparent's house, or like an old fashioned old southern lady. Then you run away with it and hope the people who live in the house don't see you, but it glows in the dark.

Start here X Here is the new and improved studio set up for oil painting.