Catching the Light, 2003
Oil, alkyd on gessoed panel
Original available: 29" x 48"
Also available as LE giclée on canvas, and open edition Art Print
Contact Artist for purchase information
I was a tom-boy growing up in suburban Chicago, and so was my cousin Marilyn who lived about a mile away. My aunt's first husband was the brother of a Chicago White Sox player, so baseball was "in the family."
During summer vacation, Marilyn and I played baseball on the empty corner lot that her family owned next door to their house. The lot was a perfect playing field—a half block long, with a running border of neatly trimmed hedge defining the property and our field of play. She and I were very good players, and each of us was the captain of the two teams we assembled from kids in the neighborhood.
When I prepared the sketch of the yellow lily for the original painting "Catching the Light," there was something about how the lily opened and stretched forth that reminded me of playing baseball on a summer's afternoon. I recalled those times when I would reach up to catch a hard hit flyball. It was more an act of faith and instinct than skill to stretch out my arm as far as I could to catch the ball...and somehow, there it would be...in my mitt.
I gave the lily that same stretching gesture, that same reaching in faith and by instinct for the sunlight.
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Images and artwork copyright ©Carol L Adamec. All rights reserved.
Please contact me if you are interested in purchasing the original painting or a limited edition giclée on stretched canvas. Also available as an Art Print through my ETSY shop: www.CarolAdamec.ETSY.com
3 comments:
Carol, I have always admired your abilities, even when you nabbed one of my "hard hit-should have been a homer-fly balls." I'm curious...when will you be doing a painting about the crab apple fights with badminton racquets also inspired by the playing field? Smile. On the serious side, I know you devote your all to every piece you create. Your artwork is visually precise, amazing and thought-provoking. Truthfully, your blog is the best I have seen. I love the uncluttered design. It seems we are both fortunate to be achieving our creative destinies that started years ago on an empty lot. Congratulations and Keep Painting! Love, MKF
Your story of playing baseball and the tie-in with "Catching the Light" opens up a whole new way of viewing this beautiful painting...
And the clue was in the title!
"Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures."
--Henry Ward Beecher
I loved the painting; I loved the story and the images it created of my big sister as a young girl playing baseball. I'm sure you were very good!
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