Favorite Things

Pinto near Rio Medina, new spring 8x10 painting

Favorite Things

 

by Cindy Morawski

 

 

Traveling last spring to a friend's ranch southwest of San Antonio in Rio Medina, Texas, I spotted a pinto horse grazing in a field of wildflowers.  I slowly pulled my car over to the side of the gravel road and got out with my camera in hand.  The horse looked up from its scented paradise and focused on me.  I then focused my camera's lens on the animal.  I snapped the shot.  I knew it was a scene and landscape that I wanted to preserve for my art and memory files. 

 

The field was blanketed in shades of yellows and purples.  The yellow flowers in the foreground blazed like miniature suns.  I wanted to rotate around each one and feel its beauty and warmth.  The pinto stood like a sentinel guarding the wildflowers.  What a lucky horse!  I stood there riveted.  I wished that I could exchange places with her, if only for a few minutes. 

 

When I think of the things that I love most in the world, I still haven't left childhood.  I remain a lover of horses.  I'm still in love with the outdoors.  I remember gathering large bouquets of wildflowers in the spring in Pennsylvania where I grew up.  I'd ride my horse Flame through the country's fields and pastures.  I'd stop and let her graze, and I'd pick a bouquet of spring beauties to share with my mother when I returned home.  My favorite things.  Hmmmm.  The music of the creek nearby, the warm sun on my face, the perfumed field of flowers, and my beloved horse friend Flame. 

 

I looked at my watch.  How long had I been standing there by the roadside?  The horse's tail swatted some flies away and turned to find another patch of grass to graze upon.  Time to head home.  I looked around.  There were some nearby flowers that I decided to pick for a bouquet.  Some things never change.  I'm delighted about that. 

 

 

HAPPY SPRING!

~~Cindy~~

 

Morawski Fine Art

www.CindyMorawski.com

Studio:  210.522.0706

Looking Back a Hundred Years, Homestead and Heritage, a Landscape Painting

Homestead and Heritage, a Landscape Painting

by Cindy Morawski

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I heard earlier this month that the drought in Texas is "officially" over. After driving on Loop 1604 this past weekend, I can believe it. I used the bluebonnet test for my measuring stick this spring. I found a sea of blue everywhere! Recently, I decided to check through my bluebonnet photos of the past. I clicked through my computer's picture files, and this is what I found. Last year's two photos showcased a group of only three random flowers in our community's greenbelt area. Of course, there were a few others in our greenbelt, but they had been nurtured. After lots of water, the protected ones finally bloomed. It was like looking at an endangered species in the zoo. That dang drought had done its damage! "What is that flower? Do you remember seeing it before?" I overheard someone say that as I was walking my dog down the greenbelt trail while shaking my head in disbelief. It wasn't until I went back three years ago into my picture files of 2007 that I found big-time bluebonnet evidence. My dog Phineas was surrounded in a thick blue carpet of neighborhood bluebonnets. I didn't have a small child handy to take a photo so I settled for my dog. Yikes! That drought did last a long time! Now I know why I appreciate this spring so much. I can't get over the many shades of green, the zillions of colorful wildflowers, and the gigantic weeds in my yard. It's truly amazing what a rainy season can do to San Antonio. After popping my allergy meds this past week, I've also said thanks every morning when I have awakened to all this beauty. Just Color My World!

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Therefore, with all this appreciation of nature going on, I decided to paint a tribute to Texas and to the Season of Spring through a landscape painting. Of course, I had to feature wildflowers, especially bluebonnets. I added trees, grasses, and a rural cabin along my horizon and entitled it -- Homestead and Heritage. Nostalgia, like Charles Dickens, can bring out the best of times and the worst of times. During the drought, I felt nostalgic for rainfall, all things green, and blooming flowers. And it just so happens that when I think of Texas history, I also get a little bit sentimental about log cabins and a simpler time. That's why I felt compelled to place the cabin in my painting.

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One of my favorite San Antonio landscape artists who happened to be a genius in painting bluebonnets was Julian Onderdonk. I saw his beautiful paintings in an exhibit featured at San Antonio's Witte Museum on Broadway awhile ago. In my opinion, one of his best was painted in 1912, "Bluebonnet Field." It features the Texas Hill Country in all its bluebonnet splendor. In 1912, San Antonio must have had a spring that rivaled ours. Onderdonk's spring paintings can also be a measuring stick that there was no drought going on in 1912. When you look at his art work, you can see a sea of blue in his bluebonnet landscapes. Almost a hundred years later, I can almost imagine how Julian must have felt gazing out at all those bluebonnets. Spring in Texas. Can it get any better than this?