Winter Passage

This time of year holds so much promise. 

The earth revolves to meet the sun each morning just a little bit earlier, and holds on just a little bit longer before it cedes to darkness.

The smallest branches high in bare trees accept color now from light freed of the frozen pull of winter.

Migratory birds begin to feel an ancient desire for flight, with promises to linger over fertile farmland here in mid-country. They have passed through here far longer than we have laid claim to boundaries and titles.

As I take refuge from brittle cold outside I feel these things.  We artists paint what we know, and I know that winter is a necessary pause from the wild growth of summer. It is a pause before the raucous call of the sandhill crane, kestrel and sharp-eyed hawk as they find refuge and food in the shallows of the Platte River. 

Winter is also a necessary pause, for me at least, from the habits and rituals of the past season.

I've noticed this feeling in the past; the slow movement at this time of year toward some sort of change.

This fallow season is when I too seem to pass through a sort of grace period, a recognition of old habits and an awakening to something that's been there all along but hidden, much like last years' summer vegetation now covered in snow. 

This painting is a celebration of the cool side of the color wheel; chill blues and violets, and cooler versions of the opposing orange and yellow. A relief from the intense greens and blues of summer painting.  As with the solstice, it's a turning point of sorts, an exploration of new ways of laying down paint and scraping it back, balancing marks from intuition and forethought. Like early sun on a winter landscape I feel a warming, a freshening of my course.   

Tah Dah!

It's a pretty cool milestone for me, Dear Reader, and you as well.
This post is number 100 in my blogging career. 
When I started this facet of my art life, I was fairly intimidated by the requirements, and by the number of posts so many of my more verbose friends were piling up.  To ease my fluttering heart, I promised myself (and you) that I wouldn't add to the cacaphony of the blogosphere by posting willy-nilly several times a week, or maybe worse yet, by posting only when the mood hit me.
I've kept my promise. I've posted once each week for 100 weeks. And to celebrate this achievement, I promised you that I'd draw a name out of my special name-drawing hat.  The owner of the name drawn out of the name-drawing hat would win an honest-to-goodness original P. Scarborough painting.

This 8x10 oil was painted on site at a little pond here in town. It's a lovely little piece, and quite honestly, I'm gonna miss it.

My name-drawing hat also serves as my plein aire painting hat.  It seemed appropriate that it be used for this event.  (Here I am, warming it up for the big drawing.  Wouldn't want to put valuable names in a cold hat.)

So...here goes!

The anticipation builds...and the winner of the 100th Post Drawing is...

...Chase!!  Chase my friend, email me at Patricia@pscarborougharts.com and we'll get the delivery of this lovely little celebratory painting figured out. 

For all you runners-up, I leave you with a cool gift in the way of a link to the Rowe Sanctuary's astonishing crane cam.  It's an amazing view into one of the world's amazing events, the annual sandhill crane migration right here in south central Nebraska.

What's cool in your world?

And the Winner Is...

Well lah - dee - dah!

We started our Valentine's Day celebrating with a nice surprise at Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer's "Wings Over the Platte" opening reception. Well, two surprises actually.

The first was seeing a Merit Award certificate next to my pastel piece, "March Migration", @2009. There were 66 pieces of art in the exhibit, and it's rewarding to know you stand out just a bit.
(Special thanks to Grammy , who reminded me of the deadline and encouraged me to send in the application, and for framing the piece so beautifully.)

We celebrated by making a bee line to the chocolate bar. In an effort to pile high my too-small plate with chocoate goodies (hey, I got an award, y'know) I received my second surprise of the eveing when I dumped a cup of hot chocolate down the front of my lovely white sweater. It's hard to act suave and sophisticated with a soggy brown splotch spreading over one's ... er ... front while watching my hard won goodies roll under the table. Lucky for me I had my jacket hung over my arm and was able to sashay out the door with no one being the wiser. Well, until now. Keep that little secret under your hat, will ya?

How did you celebrate Valentine's Day?

One Hundred Daze

I'm really excited about a new venture with my Canadian friend, Mavis. We're embarking on a painting adventure that may prove to be pretty exciting. Daily paintings are quite the rage these days. We're jumping on that band wagon, with a bit of a twist. We've agreed to paint 100 paintings in 100 days, starting March 1st.


Our theme is "Off the Road". It's not a requirement, but our paintings will have a common thread, some connection to that part of our world that is just "off the road".


This is a preview of Mavis' beautiful daily drawings . To see more of what she's been up to, find her blog at Emotionally Impelled.




The plan is for us to combine our paintings into a "Best of" exhibit. They'll be available for, you guessed it, $100 each. Look for our 100x100x100's exhibit sometime in July.



In the meantime, stop by Stuhr Museum in Grand Island, Nebraska in February. My pastel painting, "March Migration", was accepted into the prestigious "Wings Over the Platte" exhibit which has been held at the museum for over 20 years.

This exhibit is held in conjunction with the annual sandhill crane migration. Seeing these cranes by the thousands on the wide still waters of the Platte river is amazing, and worth the trip to witness.

The year is just beginning and we're off to an exciting start. What are you up to?