On a cold wet day in late September, a hint of bright orange peeked out from under huge hosta leaves in a ragged untended corner of my back yard. Why, that's the flower of an acorn squash! Who's the joker – Squirrel? Crow? Rodent who shall remain nameless? Against all odds, the plant produced a few more flowers and then called it a season.
I think that's why so many people I know have commented lately on Autumn as their favourite time of year – one phase of life brought to completion and, in the natural course of events, another one lies ahead.
In that autumnal mood, I've been considering what to hold onto, what to let go of, how to develop further. For example, what to do with 50 years of sketchbooks, of which these are just a few.
As I considered a new series, I thought I'd do a transition piece – perhaps around the pond at Il Centro – near which some Commedia characters recently whipped up a tsunami.
My first idea was to invite eight or so of the artists I most admire to an informal get-together. You might know that my favourite painting of all time is "Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte" – it was love at first sight when teenaged me first saw it in Chicago's Art Institute.
I hold this artist responsible for my tendency to pack a lot into a painting so of course he was first on my list. But was Monsieur Georges Seurat dressed for a pool party -- or did his tailored appearance invite splash-offs and pitched battles with water balloons?
With a too-long list of favourite artists, I began some preliminary sketches;
No. My transition plan was all wet. Seurat worked wall-size, after all. I decided to limit my party to just three female artists, close-up – two of them 20th century Americans, who each wrote one of my most valued art books. The first is Mary Beth McKenzie, shown here in a self-portrait.
The second is Harriet Shorr:
And the third, thought by some to be the greatest female artist of all time, blows any comparison out of the water. She is Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1654). I saw her "Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting" when it was on loan to the Vancouver Art Gallery in 2017, and this painting is virtually alive.
Well, I got started on the three of them, with the pool in the background.
And, like the acorn squash plant, I eventually called it a season – with no tasty result to show for it and Artemesia's hair having turned grey in the process. Here's "Memory Pool," copyright 2025.
This one will be painted over and "repurposed" within six months, I'm sure. But meanwhile, I conjured the idea for my new series (stay tuned) -- so I'll sit on a nearby rock, collect my breath, and press onward.
