Rhubarb Exploding (oil on canvas 5 x 7 in.)

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29 March in the garden by Pipers House in Bishops Mills, Ontario - the Rhubarb is exploding from the ground!  In slow motion, I know, but the miracle of its bursting energy amazes me each spring, and each spring I sit out there and paint it.

It rained all morning, about 6C with light breeze, and I gathered up a tiny pop-up screen dome tent and a big sheet of clear plastic, to make painting in the rain possible.  I dragged a sleeping bag out too, along with my easel and paint box.  But by three o'clock the sky was no longer falling, in fact it was lightening a bit, so I set up minimally with a low folding seat.  Some of the shoots already had tightly puckered leaves beside them, but I thought that if I  paint more than one Rhubarb this spring, it would be good to start here, with the simple energy of the buds starting up out of the earth.

The composition directs the eye upward, to the largest bursting bud, rather than centering the gaze which a more stable arrangement would do.  I wanted this painting to have maximum energy, and I think it does!

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