Some Thoughts on Spring and Egg Paintings

Four years ago, in the beginning of my post-Atelier journey to understand how to paint color, I began painting small studies of ordinary chicken and duck eggs.   The eggs were various colors, mostly subtle shades of brown and white, but some pale blues and greens.  The colors turned out to be surprisingly complex, especially in the natural light of mid-winter Minnesota which is generally blinding, bright, white or soul-crushing gray, with very little in-between.

I know that I must have started the paintings right after the Valentine's chocolates were replaced on store shelves by the Easter candy.  The process of painting the eggs helped me to remember that at least the commercial start of spring would soon arrive.  After 29 years in Minnesota, I am convinced that "spring" as a season exists here for about 24 hours, sometime after the last hail storm and before the lilacs are completely spent.

From their debut at Art-A-Whirl 2018, through several neighborhood art shows and open studios, and up until the sale of the final painting from my NEMAA shop two months ago, the eggs have been popular.  They are affordable and they have the radiance you only find in original oil paintings. But I think that people are also drawn to them for the same reasons I enjoy painting them: they are simple, common objects that, when given a bit of attention, give us the opportunity to briefly contemplate the wonder of nature every time we glance their way.

I scored the amazing collection pictured above from the shop at Gale Woods Farm in Minnetrista, Minnesota and have begun another series of small oil paintings. some of which will pair the eggs with one or more of the small pitchers, vases and cups which I have been saving for no other reason than "this might look good in a still life." Hopefully I will find some sweet little frames from my favorite NE Minneapolis frame shop, Hang It! (I always do) and they will make their way onto Instagram and into my NEMAA shop, and maybe onto the walls where they'll serve as a reminder of the reason why eggs, especially in spring, are a reason to be hopeful.