“Hannah’s Dragon”

If it hadn’t been for the horrible flood we had at the end of June, I never would have painted this. Torrential rainfall here left 6″ of water in my studio and knee-deep water in the back storage areas. Just a nightmare. I had to pick up EVERYTHING (!) and find places to set things where they could dry.

Here’s a photo of my flooded studio in case you’d missed a previous post:

In the process of sifting through the mess, I found a box with a small Chinese dragon. It’d been a gift from my artist friend, Hannah Frassinelli, who died of esophageal cancer a few years ago. She had taught at one of the art schools in New York City and sometimes found cool (and weird!) stuff in the trash. One time she found a wild boar skull (yes — I’ve used it in a painting!). One day she found a discarded Chinese dragon and knew I’d love it. Of course she was right! Miraculously, it had narrowly escaped a good soaking. I decided to pair it with some white caladiums from Pine Hill Nursery.

Just give me a good struggle. I abhor wasting time doing same-old, too-easy, boring stuff. That’s too much like a JOB. I prefer working from life, rather than photos. Yes, it’s a bit tricky to try to paint the leaves which are always changing, moving towards the light, dying, growing. But at least they’re not boring.

Years ago I painted another view of this same Chinese dragon:

Yeah. Loud colors RULE!