New: Rebecca Darlington Painting, "Waves of Majesty"
For more than 2 decades I lived on the side of a mountain in the Hudson Valley soaking up a hundred seasons of prolific growth. (It was a surprise to come up with that number!) My closest neighbors were herds of deer and a forest full of Magna Mater's precious creatures. It was a chance of a lifetime to build a library of memories about our Enchanted World and her capabilities of astounding beauty.
Since recently completing, "Waves of Majesty," I am reminded of the the power of color firmly instilled in my memory. Sundown colors on that mountain were the best. I often did not have time to stop, take pictures or relish them. You see life was fast then. I raised 5 sons there during my 25 years at our Hudson Valley home. Sunsets blasted into our huge country farm kitchen. I remember those intense colors streaming across cute pudgy faces laughing and talking and eating their way through almost ten thousand dinners I made. Another staggering fact I have never considered.
“God gave us memory so that we might have roses in December.”
This oil painting is horizontal. It's 48 wide by 30 inches high on canvas. It was a struggle to let it go and exist. I worked on it on for 3 months. I mentioned this on a zoom call with my extended family last week and one sister said, "All of your paintings are a fight." And she's right. I am sure I am not the only abstract forest painter to feel this way.
Pierre Bonnard, one of the post impressionistic Nabis painters, is my idol. He often painted from sketches and then invented the color from memory in his paintings. The most obvious example is from the series of paintings he made of his wife bathing. I have a book that shows photos from his home near La Cannet in France. The bathroom is utterly devoid of any hue and could not be more plain. Yet in his paintings the bathroom and especially the tiles are flooded with shimmering color.
With this work I am full of gratitude for the power of the mind to preserve not only intimate details of our lives but also the full chroma of a sunset on fire.
Message me about seeing this painting. Zoom or In-Person; My studio is OPEN.
XO Rebecca