Week 127

Lately it’s been really hard for us to unanimously select an image for inspiration from our slew of photoshoots, leaving us locked in a dual brow furrowed state of indecision, translating into delayed painting nights. We decided to take turns for the next few times to see how that goes.

And so, I got to pick first. I selected almost immediately an image from our trip to Greece. There is a monastery system built precipitously on the tops of enormous stone boulders that rise imposingly from the earth like great, ruddy pillars. This place is called Meteora and even been featured in a James Bond movie. 

I’d recommended this one before, but it was turned down. So when I showed him my selection, I could feel the tension.

In the studio, I asked his opinion on sizing and layout to which he did not want to give input. I felt like he was punishing me. My tendency is to be a people pleaser so this response left me feeling alone and insecure. After our drawing was completed and we were already set up to paint, he then began to give input by modifying the color balance of the picture, making it warm and faded like an old time photo. It could have been nice but I rejected it since the vision I had for this was somewhere between the  Bridge in Viridian we did a couple weeks ago and the style of Eleftheria, a Greek woman from our first series. It was quiet work tonight, building layers of luscious color right upon another. The painting seemed to blow into life, warm and fragrant. Nevertheless Laert left the studio right after it was done. I just wanted to stay there and revel. I realized I have done that to him on occasion if I felt as though my opinion did not matter or if I was not loving a subject matter or style. I would kind of pull away and ‘dead fish’ it. It’s humbling to see your behaviors in another person, and makes me want to do better to show up regardless of my feelings. 

While looking around this secluded monastery, there are small microcosms in which you cannot fathom that you are on the pinnacle of a massive stone column.  Other places you see the enormity of where you are. In this spot, with the sun warming our backs and the aromatic sway of lavender, there is a drawing in, a focusing. We trade the reverberation of a busy world at large for the light hum of bees and whispering caress of wind. It is reverent and peaceful, welcoming and full of grace. Here we shed feelings or habits that burden us and are once again light, free to begin again. 

Meteora in Bloom

12 x 20 | Oil on Panel