The Last Daylily of Summer
James Aponovich
oil on canvas, 8" x 10", 2011
Today is the Autumnal Equinox, the first day of fall and the mid point of this year long project. For gardeners, this is a time of mixed emotions. On the one hand there is sadness at the waning garden with everything withering and turning brown.......daily remorse. On the other hand there is ( for me at least) a certain relief in that it is over, at least for another season.
It is time to concentrate, to return full time to the studio and prepare mentally and physically for the on coming winter in New England. Last week I spotted a lone surviving daylily,' Hyperion' I guess, so since I have not painted my yearly daylily painting I decided to honor it with one last study. Of course, it turns out to be the most vivid lemon yellow imaginable. As I noted before,(week # 22) yellow is the most irascible and difficult color to work with. Value wise this is a very high pitched painting for me. You see, yellow is the next step down from white and whereas a background of black will make yellow really glow, surrounding it with white will mitigate yellow's natural intensity. I chose a transparent glass to enhance this effect. I wanted to use a dark element but found it very difficult to balance. If this painting were a musical instrument, I think it would have to be a Baroque trumpet.
Two Examples of "Daylily" paintings that I have painted in past years:
Three Pots of Daylilies
James Aponovich
Oil on canvas
Daylilies come in endless variations of size, color and leaf shape. In this painting I was as excited by the foliage as I was the flowers,
so I painted the potted plants prior to planting....period.
Still Life with Daylilies and Primula
James Aponovich
oil on canvas
This is a significant still life with daylilies. I will return to it the upcoming weeks.
Copyright 2011 James Aponovich
Bravo James! Saw the story on Chronicle last night, what an idea! I took an intro class from you several years ago at NH Institute of Art. You took our class to the North End and my husband Dennis was the driver. I look forward to seeing the exhibit next year at Clark.
ReplyDeleteKaren