Sunflowers

 

“Sunflowers”    12 x 612    Pastel    $300    © Sharon Lewis
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I’ve been busy working on several paintings at the same time. This is one I started in a workshop at my arts conference last week and came home and worked on a bit.

Happy Weekend!

Finding the Light

  “Finding the Light”        14 x 11     Pastel    $300    © Sharon Lewis
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                      I ran across an older social media post where I referenced Amanda Gorman’s poem, The Hill We Climb, and thinking of those in Minneapolis, I want to share these words: 

We will rise from the golden hills of the West.

We will rise from the windswept Northeast where our forefathers first realized revolution.

We will rise from the lake-rimmed cities of the Midwestern states.

We will rise from the sun-baked South…

We will rebuild, reconcile, and recover.

And every known nook of our nation and every corner called our country, our people diverse and beautiful, will emerge battered and beautiful.

When day comes, we step out of the shade aflame and unafraid.

The new dawn blooms as we free it.

For there is always light, if only we’re brave enough to see it.

If only we’re brave enough to be it.

I have great admiration for all the people out in the bitter, Minnesotan cold, helping their immigrant neighbors.

Happy Weekend!

 

Winter Sunshine

    

“Winter Sunshine”        7 x 5     Oil    $105    © Sharon Lewis
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            Sunflowers are fun to paint any time of year but they’re especially so when winter brings us grey skies and cold temperatures. I did a deep dive into all things interesting about sunflowers and I’ll share just a few. I discovered that in addition to being beautiful, the sunflower provides us with sunflower seeds, sunflower oil, and is a symbol of the sun god in some cultures. Wild sunflowers produce many flowers on each plant but small seeds and the domesticated varieties produce a single large flower and larger seeds. Sunflowers are considered heliotropic in that they follow the path of the sun through the day. Finally, they can remove toxic elements from the soil, like lead and uranium, which is pretty amazing. So sunflowers are both beautiful and beneficial. 

            Happy Weekend!

 

Sunburst

  “Sunburst”            6” x 6”          Pastel         $50         © Sharon Lewis

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              I’ve been going through my studio continuing to excavate paintings some of which I’m putting out of their misery and filing in the trash bin, some I’m working on if they seem to have a good composition, and a very few I decided that I liked as they are. Finding this one was a nice surprise since I love sunflowers; they’ve always seemed like such a great symbol of summer!

            Happy Weekend!

 

Antidote for a Rainy Day

“Antidote for a Rainy Day”   7” x 5”   Pastel    $50    © Sharon Lewis

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It was a grey, rainy day when I painted this last weekend. I think subconsciously, I was looking for something to counteract the gloominess of the day when I noticed some photos I’d taken of some enormous, bright sunflowers. I’d placed them on a table near a window where the sun spotlighted the flowers beautifully. These cheerful, yellow sunflowers are to me, the perfect antidote for a rainy day.

Happy Weekend!