Roadsides

Roadsides , a photo by linfrye on Flickr.

1/8 Sheet
Arches140#CP

Sometimes the beauty of a wayward spot along the road has the ability to stop me in my tracks. Whether it's the light, the grasses against the rocks, the multitude of pretty weeds, the sun glinting off a section of granite, the textures - whatever it is -- I simply MUST paint that bit of landscape.

This is one such place captured last year in a photograph, painted this week more for texture and feeling than for the simple reality of the view. My favorite part of this painting are the grasses and wildflowers against the rocks ... reminding me of John Denver's song "The flower that shattered the stone:"

The Earth is our mother just turning around
With the trees in the forest and roots underground
Our father above us whose sigh is the wind
Paint us a rainbow without any end

As the river runs freely, the mountain does rise
Let me touch with my fingers and see with my eyes
In the hearts of the children a pure love still grows
Like a bright star in heaven that lights our way home
Like the flower that shattered the stone

Sparrows find freedom beholding the sun
In the infinite beauty we're all joined in one
I reach out before me and look to the sky
Did I hear someone whisper? Did something pass by?

As the river runs freely the mountain does rise
Let me touch with my fingers and see with my eyes
In the hearts of the children a pure love still grows
Like a bright star in heaven that lights our way home
Like the flower that shattered the stone
Like a bright star in heaven that lights our way home
Like the flower that shattered the stone

Words and Music by Joe Henry and John Jarvis
Corrected by "A. Elizabeth Hawley"

May there be flowers among your stones ....