"Yellow Flowers"
24" x 36"
Plein air Oil on Canvas
Copyright by artist, Brenda Hofreiter
I painted this painting on location along the banks of the St. Johns River near the old Osteen bridge road. The yellow daisy-like flowers only bloom for a few weeks in the spring and fall and I was thrilled to have finally found them in full bloom at last! The view of miles of blooms is spectacular! The water is receding from the summer floods and you can still see a ribbon of it flowing back to the main banks of the St. Johns. It is early afternoon and the clouds are building along the horizon. You can see an old cattle fence in the foreground where the land drops off along the side of the road. Occasionally cattle graze the new grasses. The view seems to go on forever which always makes me feel at peace.
I know that most folks think that painting is a pleasant and peaceful pursuit, and it can be. My goal certainly is to make a painting that creates a pleasant and peaceful reaction for the viewer. However, the painting experience for the painter can sometimes be a death-defying one. Creating this painting was one of those experiences for me. I came literally within inches of death when a car on the 415 crossroad was hit from behind, spun around and finally rolled to a stop within a foot of where I was painting. I lost a few years off my life from fright, but fortunately, no one was seriously injured in the accident. Unfortunately, It wasn't the first time that I have escaped "death-while-painting". I guess this just wasn't my time to go! I joke that someday I will write a book about my uncomfortable and death defying plein air experiences and title it, "En Plein Air ... an X-treme adventure in painting". Wonder if there would be any interest in that?
P.S. This painting won first place at the Osceola Center for the Arts annual juried show.
