“A Warm Welcome”

In this fourth piece of Autistic Expressionism called “A Warm Welcome,” I began to be more intentional about the composition of the spaces, making sure the rounded edges and circles were in interesting places, balancing them across the page and making sure they were an odd number. For some reason, in decor and art groupings, odd is more aesthetically pleasing. I laid the shapes down in light graphite with a ruler and circle template, which was staring to become normal for me and I was forming a habit for my processing and calming ritual, as well as a style element for the art itself.

In this season of my life, I was making a strong effort to get into the studio every day, which was something I had been trying to do for many years, and I would get in there most days, but at varying times of the day, still dependent on whatever was going on around me. My studio is a really bright space for me to work, which I love, and the varying times caused the light to be different in there. This affected my mood and then the art that I would choose to work on. Since my mom was staying with us to recuperate, we were more home-bound, and that helped me to create a more regular routine.

It was getting cold outside and I was already starting to miss warmer weather, especially since I had picked my mom up from the south and had gone to the ocean. I always seem to feel the ocean calling me to my very bones. Anyway, I chose a bright and warm palette of colors in sunset colors with the intention of doing something sort of sunset-y. Going in with no other plan than to make the composition somewhat pleasing, I intuitively created a central focus – unintentionally. I started drawing the tropical leaves and palm fronds, and then the color palette itself seemed to dictate the fruit slices, as I dreamed of sitting on the beach with a sweet juice in my hand. One fruit led to another and I initially intended for the pineapple to be a lime, and I do NOT know what happened! It grew leafy stalks and then the idea changed and it became a pineapple. Pineapple traditionally means welcome, with warmth and generosity. I like that, and that’s how it got its name.

When I look at this painting, I am reminded of that sunny shore where I spent one morning in my imagination, and in my studio. I hope you find warmth in it too as you look at it.

For more works like this, see my gallery pages here on the website. If you’d like to see a video version of this blog, check out this link: https://youtu.be/l0a1_SudbwI

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Dawn