The exotic lure of passion vine. I have one growing on the outside wall of my studio. When I was doing Open Studios in the fall this vine would frequently upstage my paintings. Visitors would be snared by its seductive blooms peeking out demurely from dense foliage. They would arrive in my studio not with interest in the paintings, but anxious to know the name of the exotic bloom. Eagerly they would thrust their iPhone picture, just taken, at me for an answer.
Recently one of my students remarked on the heady fragrance from the vine, noticed even before the blooms. On a perfect early fall day this week I myself succumbed to the mystery and brought out a folding chair and my sketch gear to hang out with one particularly well situated bloom.
I got a respectable enough but rather ho-hum sketch and was bested yet again by this showy flower. You can see my problem. Look at the palette of color and shapely forms of one of nature’s own prima ballerinas!
Even after I tried all my cool tricks like splatter and framing and such, I had lost heart to try again. Today maybe I’ll just sit for a few minutes, allow the vine’s spell to enfold me, and celebrate its beauty without trying to copy it.
Every other Sunday I attend a meditation session and discourse by my Tibetan Buddhist teacher in Point Richmond, then drive home to Sebastopol. This Sunday I’d brought my sketch gear and took some time to eat lunch and sketch in the tiny town square. Point Richmond, even with its proximity to San Francisco and Oakland, has maintained a delightful small town ambiance with much of the cultural diversity and artistic interest found in other areas of the Bay Area. My plan is to work my way around the couple blocks of the town, enjoying some Sunday sketching as long as the weather holds.
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