Colorado Asters T-Shirt

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A cluster of delicate, but hardy, lavender asters draw the eye to forest floors, grassy fields and even gravel surfaces near the dirt roads of Colorado, with a wild, gestural beauty. One of my all-time favorite flowers, the aster is a wild creature, best seen, and painted near a stand of aspen trees, as autumn approaches in the Rocky Mountains, or mid-summer or earlier at higher elevations.
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This painting was done en plein air, in just such a gorgeous setting, and thus has a loose, brushstroke quality reminiscent of sumi-e style or asian influenced art that I find so mesmerizing.
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If their small but insistent loveliness were not enough, these flowers also bring for me, memories of some of my favorite childhood moments playing at my Grammy's rustic cabin where cranking the old victrola produced polkas, pumping hard and long produced cold, clear water, and cooking was done on a wood stove. My Grammy taught me the names of flowers, on long walks, taught me, even more...

To me, making art is about the stopping of time, as are so many of the things I most love doing. I don't believe in time as we know it. When I become engaged in creating something, I no longer feel subject to time's constricting whims. That is why I am driven to create. I love the light touch and thrilling chemistry of watercolor painting, the bold strokes possible in pastel work, the patterns I can create with an ink drawing, and learning something new, always. Color thrills me. Texture delights. I hope with each work to retain the clarity of what I see, and bring that into view for others. I may not always achieve that, but the honest desire is present in each of my pieces. For those who enjoy facts; I am a signature member of...