Even More Blue Chairs
I painted the first version of this painting in the backyard with my daughter, Camlin. I didn't like it so I scraped it off with a palette knife. But then I liked the way it looked after I had scraped it. Did I like it enough to post it? That, I also tossed around in my head. Ultimately, I decided that it's part of the progression, so here it is. Plus, my aunt Enice, who may be the only person who reads this blog, said she liked it :) Thanks, Enice! This is also the first painting I've done of the chairs since we had to cut down the ninety year old Japanese Maple that used to sit directly behind them - I put the chairs in their current spot to hide the massive stump. The tree was killed by an infestation of ambrosia beetles that target trees that are already in a weakened state. The arborist who examined the tree said he thought it was weakened by the cicada outbreak in 2021 and then the beetles moved in, bored into the bark, and turned it to sawdust. Heartbreaking. I didn't achieve the colorful, happy tone that I set out to achieve on this perfect summer day in the backyard with my daughter. Maybe the ghost of this beautiful tree had something to do that that.
