The
paintings shown here are all oil on linen,
although I also work in pastels and
pencil.
On the
surface I often paint flowers and landscapes.
But under that is a whole life's evolution. In
the Seventies I started a farm in Albion and
worked hard to learn the lost art of
homesteading (living simply and caring for
plants and animals). In the Eighties I began to
paint seriously and put the farming aside for a
while. There wasn't time to travel, exhibit, and
paint full-time while tending a farm. This has
meant balancing my time. Farming and gardening
cycles alternate with painting cycles and all
these activities feed each other.
Gradually
life and art have begun to blend. As I go out my
cabin door in the morning on my way to milk the
goats I notice clematis blossoms glowing as they
climb up the cabin's side. Later in the
afternoon light I set up my easel and paint the
giant purple flower. Or I drive along Navarro
Ridge on my way to work and "see" the red cows
lounging in the spring green grass. Later I'll
go back to paint them. Winter is a time for
still-lifes, perhaps a painting of the braid of
onions that I grew last summer hanging by my
sink. And the flow between art and life goes
both ways. As I build a new cabin I find that my
art skills of composition, proportion and
especially patience are all needed
there.
I'm
happy to be able to create these paintings as
reminders of life here at Turtle Time
Farm.
Carmen
Goodyear
Albion, CA
95410
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