PLUM BLOSSOMS IN SPRING
 ACRYLICS ON CEDAR W/ RED OAK FRAME
(WINTER 2014)

     A sure sign that spring is on the way is when our friend Jim prunes his trees, providing plum cuttings for the neighborhood.  There is nothing quite like plum blossoms blooming in a vase on the table.  The warmth of the room and the water prompts the cuttings to produce their beautiful blossoms.  I was inspired by the blooming stems to paint this picture to celebrate the start of spring.  For my design I drew inspiration from Hiroshige’s Plum Garden at Kameido (see Ukiyo-e; 250 Years of Japanese Art, by Roni Neuer, Herbert Libertson, and Susugu Yoshida ,©1979, page 319).  The young woman represents spring and was inspired by both Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh and Roy Vickers.  I love the women Margaret Mackintosh designed and her painted gesso panel Opera of the Sea (see Art Nouveau: From Mackintosh to Liberty, by Victor Arwas , ©2000, page 69)  was particularly helpful.  Art Nouveau celebrated the “cult of hair” and this is reflected in the hair I designed for “Spring”.  Roy Vickers’s John 15:13, Hebrews 9:28, showing a portrait of Christ, was the inspiration for her hair (see Northwest Coast Indian Graphics: An Introduction to Silk Screen Prints by Edwin S. Hall, Jr., Margaret B. Blackman & Vincent Rickard, ©1981, page 96).  The stylized background body of “Spring” is meant to be symbolic of a vase.  I made the frame out of red oak using pegged, hand-joined, mortise-and-tenon construction methods.  I used the Japanese technique (shou-sugi-ban) of charring and oiling the oak to finish the frame.


DIMENSIONS:     HEIGHT:  31 1/2 inches
                           WIDTH:   10 1/2 inches

                               PRICE $350

Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh Opera of the Sea

Hiroshige’s Plum Garden at Kameido

Roy Vickers’s John 15:13, Hebrews 9:28