The Grass is Always Greener
By Bonnie White
Written en plein air at Pebble Beach, Stevenson, Washington
Whispers moved through the easels, over the bank and through the brush.
“I know a place!”
Someone knows a better place to paint.
“Let’s go.”
Painting, focused, working, didn’t listen, don’t know.
“Where did they go?”
“Does anybody know where they went?”
“Does anybody know where they went?” Echoes again.
A voice warns: “You’re going to be left all alone down there, painting that dead fish!”
A voice replies: “It’s okay with me.”
I think I’m feeling inadequate, old, uncool.
I remember when that was me--restless, wandering, looking for the better view, the greener grass--moving from bush to bush in the berry patch of life, always seeing the biggest berries just out of reach.
When did that change?
Where is the switch that turns the mundane into the extraordinary? Why do some see the color in mud and for others mud is dismissed? It was only when I realized that it wasn’t the view, it was the vision, that painting became a dance.
Bonnie White is an artist who works in watercolor and oil. She and six other creative people own and operate "Made in the Gorge," located on Oak Street in Hood River. White loves, observing, studying, painting, and writing about the natural world. She lives about 4 miles east of Husum, Washington.
