Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Crab Apple Blast

Acrylic on 10"w x 8"h canvas
Click on image above to enlarge.
$65.00 Please contact Blue Lake Gallery in Duluth to purchase.

Last November I took at least 50 photos of a crab apple tree in Bemidji, MN that had dropped it's leaves but still had the colorful red apples on it's branches. (I'm wrestling with whether or not 'its' should have an apostrophe or not at the moment ... if you are an english lit. teacher please bear with me) :) I've painted several new works along this crab apple theme for my upcoming Tremendous Trees show at Blue Lake Gallery in Duluth. My daughter Autumn titled this piece 'Crab Apple Blast' as she viewed it as a blast of wind moving the apple.

This particular painting was inspired by a lone crab apple branch and fruit that was etched into my memory. I was so amazed at the thought of the apple hanging onto the branch while the wind blew hard against it that I just had to paint it. There are times in life when you feel as though the weight of the world is on your shoulders and all you can do is just hang on ... and I was encouraged by this little guy fighting the odds ... funny how so little an apple can captivate a soul. I went back into my photo collection to find the reference photo long after the painting was signed and completed and I was amazed at how similar the image in my memory was to the reference photo I never looked at when I was painting this piece. The mind and memory can be a powerful thing.

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