At one point in my childhood, I lived on a small 40 acre farm. The house was set back from the highway and the fields lay on either side of the road leading to the house were planted in corn or wheat. We had a barn and other houses to protect our cows, pigs, chickens, dogs and cats. We also had a garden where I learned to plant, weed and harvest vegetables, and later helped my mother preserve them for the winter.
At the back of the property, the land was part of a small hill - just enough for a fun sled ride when snow covered the land. I remember alfalfa planted there and the bales of hay after my uncle mowed. Also on a back corner was a wooded area where sun played on the leaves of the trees and danced on the shrubs. It was here that fungi grew and all sorts of bugs and insects could be found. It wasn't until years later that I realized how much I had come to love this land.
In time, we moved to a house on a small lot in a small town. My time was spent in high school, later college and the big city. After marriage, I was again in a small town where I planted flowers and a few vegetables in the flower beds.
When the youngest child was in college, I moved to Maryland, found a teaching position at the university and moved into a condo. I was lucky to have found a "garden apartment" meaning there was a 4' x 12' patch of soil attacked to the enclosed patio where I enjoyed having flowers and a few veggies. It was while I was teaching at the University of Maryland that I learned to paint, taking one class each semester.
In time, I left and lived with my aging mother in Florida where I continued painting lessons from the teachers at the local gallery. Still later, I married a man from Baltimore who always wanted to live near his childhood home on the Eastern shore. When we settled there, I again went to the local gallery for lessons and found that these artists were plein air (outdoor) painters.
When I first tried painting out-of-doors, it was a challenge! How does one fit something from that panorama onto an 8" x 10" canvas board? With time and practice it became easier and I found that I really loved painting in the open air.
Now, I usually paint on canvases 20" x 20" and am interested mostly in gnarled trees because they have such interesting designs. People have told me that my paintings are all about design and color, and in painting outdoors I can see the depth of field so much better than a photograph can afford. I feel the love of the land I experienced as a child, and as the poet said, "No matter if I get sunburned, bitten by bugs, lost my brush or my painting didn't turn out well, I still had a great day"!
At Mary's Art, Inc. we have a large variety of original hand painted oil paintings on canvas. These inexpensive, colorful paintings were created en plein air (French for "open air") to capture the spirit and emotions of nature and bring them to you for your enjoyment. They are modern in style, somewhat abstract, and with expressionism overtones. Please visit http://www.murphyartstudio.com/ and find paintings you will love.
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