Happy Spring!

"it takes generosity to discover the whole through others.   If you realize you are only a violin,  you can open yourself up to the world by playing your role in the concert."    -jacques yves Cousteau

I always think it is funny that people believe they were Vincent Van Gogh in a former life, or St. Francis of Assisi.  In fact I was probably just the lamplighter or street sweeper, a nun or a shopkeeper.  We couldn’t all be that person we so admire.  And so it goes, that it takes every little person to make up the living body of nature.

I was out painting at 7:30 Sunday morning:  mimosa against a grey sky.   I rarely am around to see mimosa in bloom. We have no mimosa in the Appenines, but in Stimigliano, just above the valley of the Tiber it is in riotous flower.   I couldn’t identify mimosa in the off-season.

It is spring both in Stimigliano and Rocca Malatina.  Up north, the cherries are already flowering, nearly a month ahead of time.  In Stimigliano, little bursts of white blooms juxtaposition the just-planted wheat fields.  In both places, the brilliant coral-colored quince blossoms are exceptional.  Birds are singing before 6 AM.

This time of year pushes plein-air painting on me once again.  Every year I think, oh, it’s a little too cold, or I can’t stand outside that long, but I am compelled to record what is happening around me.  And somehow I find the energy, the strength.  Renewal.

This Sunday we celebrated my nephew’s 21^st birthday – he’s studying philosophy (and food) in Perugia.  On Sunday (my usual artnotes day) we went to Lake Trasimeno and ate fresh water fish at the Trattoria del Pescatore:  pike, bass and carp.  It was a rare treat, both to celebrate youth and to enjoy the lake with all of our five senses.   

As I gather gather together the square pictures twenty-six artists are painting for our mystery art composition, I feel like a conductor of an orchestra.   I like being part of the picture team (at least one square will me mine, another Blair’s).  I feel the time has come for all of us to pull together and welcome spring on planet earth this year.  Spring is the new year, the season of rebirth.