Staying At Home

"Uptown"
8 x 8, Oil on Linen mounted on Board
(c) Lesley Powell 2020

With COVID-19 continuing to spread, it appears that I will not be traveling this year. That's quite a change for me. Last year  I had wonderful experiences painting in California, in  Provence, and in Paris. But I'm looking on the bright side: there is a lot to be discovered from one's own surroundings.

"Dilworth Artisan Station"
12 x 16, Oil on Linen
(c) Lesley Powell 2020

I'm illustrating this post with recent paintings of my hometown of Charlotte. Some are inside my studio. And I'm sharing quotes by some of my favorite artists and writers, on the topic of mining your immediate surroundings.  Enjoy!

"The fine things of this world were never accomplished by globe-trotting.  All creative work is the testimony of some fine brain to the things, and thoughts, and sights, that are near at hand."  --John F. Carlson, Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting

"Door #1"
12 x 7, Oil on Linen mounted on Board
(c) Lesley Powell 2020

"If your everyday life seems poor, don't blame IT; blame yourself; admit to yourself that you are not enough of a poet to call forth its riches; because for the creator there is no poverty and no poor, indifferent place."  --Ranier Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet  

"Your life's work lies in the courtyard just outside your house."  --Frank Hobbs, interview in Painting Perceptions

"Pears, Three"
12 x 16, Oil on Linen
(c) Lesley Powell 2020

"We run 2,000 miles to see one of the 'nine wonders' of the world, while right under our own eyes, perhaps in our own back yard, something transpires that is worth nine times nine wonders. Do not be a tourist-painter."  --John F. Carlson,  Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting