Autumn in Lithia Park III

Lithia Park – Paintings From A Different View

The Park

Lithia Park is an historic place Ashland, Oregon.  Its a beautiful park designed by the same person who designed Golden Gate Park.  It has lots of varieties of trees.  A creek runs through it.  Rhododendrons and azaleas bloom profusely in spring.  There are two duck ponds.  But, I chose a different viewpoint – looking down at my feet.

Autumn In Lithia Park

The Challenge

My choices for day five of the 3 paintings/day for 5 days FB challenge* date back to 2003.  These early paintings are still among my favorite, plus I think its instructive to see them again.  I contemplate how far I have traveled on this artistic journey.  The four paintings and drawing in this small series were purchased as a collection and I am happy knowing that they are together.

Autumn in Lithia Park

Back to the park.  It is a favorite place to visit for my husband and me.  One day in October of 2003, we were walking along one of the park trails and there were butterflies and baby skinks (a type of lizard) all over the place.  It was like a final bursting of life on that autumn day.  The coloration of the butterflies and baby skinks was similar to the colors I used in "Autumn in Lithia Park".  The butterflies were dark, almost black with orange and white spots.  The baby skinks and bright blue tails and yellow stripes running down the body.  What glorious color.

Autumn In Lithia Park II

Oddly enough, I have never seen the skink and butterfly combination in such profusion again in Lithia Park.

I did not draw on location.  I didn't have paper or pencil.  Instead, I took mental notes and when we returned to our hotel room (we had been visiting), I quickly drew my impressions and notes of what I had seen.  From these notes, I created four designs that became the paintings and drawing shown here.

Autumn in Lithia Park IV

A Word About the Colored Pencil Piece

Oh, I almost forgot, in the early days of my art "career", I worked colored pencil side-by-side with watercolor.  For the past five years or so, I have focused on my watercolor work.

Retrospective

I have enjoyed doing this mini, on-line retrospective of my work.  In thinking about my drawings and paintings, I am reminded of my goals and intentions I set to paper back in 2002 when I first started my artistic journey.  I have wanted to express what I see and feel in a personal way.  Inspired by nature, people, relationships and pets, the paintings are my own vision.  I suppose that's not particularly profound.  I'm thinking this is pretty much true of any artist.  We can't help but paint our own vision.

That being said, I've learned tremendously from other artists and I hope to continue to do so.  

Thanks!

I hope you enjoy the four views of "Autumn in Lithia Park".  Thank you Myrna Wacknov for inviting me to take part in the three-for-five FB challenge.

Autumn in Lithia Park III

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