Lily Briscoes, II is a thickly painted impression of my favorite flower and my favorite book character by my favorite author. Lily Briscoe is a even tempered painter in To the Lighthouse, by Virginia Woolf. Woolf writes Lily as a self-aware and sensitive young painter who lives on the margins of a great family, observing their emotions, connections and exchanges. Her work, her painting, though unnoticed by the professional world sustains her purpose which only she understands. Through the act of painting, Lily thinks and sees. Who cannot relate to this girl?
I like observing flowers and I prefer to paint them though their life and death stages. I find the movement of the flower - the twists, turns, shifts in color and posture of the petals and leaves – a curious spectacle and a captivating challenge to record in oil. Each day I paint and I depart only to return to a new group of guests who are in some different part of the conversation. I must remain silent and catch up before it is too late.
Perhaps you have a different mode that is rich and sustaining through which you can peer safely into your thought life. Places sometimes offer these opportunities and invite us to step away and behold. Whatever your modality, I offer this painting to all the “Lilies” of the world, as well as to myself.
Oil on canvas, 28.5 × 18”
Lily Briscoes, II is a thickly painted impression of my favorite flower and my favorite book character by my favorite author. Lily Briscoe is a even tempered painter in To the Lighthouse, by Virginia Woolf. Woolf writes Lily as a self-aware and sensitive young painter who lives on the margins of a great family, observing their emotions, connections and exchanges. Her work, her painting, though unnoticed by the professional world sustains her purpose which only she understands. Through the act of painting, Lily thinks and sees. Who cannot relate to this girl?
I like observing flowers and I prefer to paint them though their life and death stages. I find the movement of the flower - the twists, turns, shifts in color and posture of the petals and leaves – a curious spectacle and a captivating challenge to record in oil. Each day I paint and I depart only to return to a new group of guests who are in some different part of the conversation. I must remain silent and catch up before it is too late.
Perhaps you have a different mode that is rich and sustaining through which you can peer safely into your thought life. Places sometimes offer these opportunities and invite us to step away and behold. Whatever your modality, I offer this painting to all the “Lilies” of the world, as well as to myself.
Oil on canvas, 28.5 × 18”
