Swirling Eddy – Wyeth Walk #161

I did not go on a walk yesterday- but did end up hanging out with the kids in the back yard.  I had had a nap in the afternoon that I never really woke up from, and my emotions were a swirling wreck. I ended up taking selfies of my hair as I lay on the grass looking up into the gorgeous sky.  This is the photo I posted on Instagram after processing colors and making the photo swirl in depths and colors that seemed to match my mood.  But today, I really prefer the original colors and textures:

The Andrew Wyeth painting I had in mind as I was doing this is perhaps one of my favorites- an extremely free watercolor of a nude Helga lying in the grass or woods.  The swirls and passionate swaths of color just suggest the woods and grass, we don’t actually know where she is.  And, her legs and arms are portrayed by abstract suggestions of her limbs.  The Andrew Wyeth quote next to this picture in “The Helga Pictures” (plate 71) is:

“If somehow I can, before I leave this earth, combine my absolutely mad freedom and excitement with the truth, then I will have done something.”

As I was lying in the grass with these swirling emotions, I felt like painting myself in those abstract swirls.  Not sure I did it justice.

August 25, Chester County PA, temp 75F