Fiddleheads & The Feminine Divine

This week these fiddlehead ferns caught my eye.  The promise of all that's held in that spiral of unfurling green leaf is exhilarating.

Then I saw my friend's necklace at church the next day. 

Recognize the shape? She told me she knew of it as the symbol for "Pachamama," a symbol of the feminine divine or earth mother.  I like the name!  It is a strong symbol of life force like the fiddle head promises in its furl.

Two paintings from two weekends ago at dawn in Chittenden, Vermont.  Could not resist.

Sketch for the new strelitzia painting

I found this strelitzia bloom under a huge leaf while I was in Bermuda at the holidays. I've been dying to start a painting of it. I'm struck by the woody edge of the trunk of the plant, the wind-whipped dead edges of the leaf in the foreground, and the waxy, almost dead texture of the blue-purple pod of the bloom.  I'm interested in the way those dead parts contrast with the delicate, live white petals and the pinky throat of the bloom.

Here are some thumbnails I did while I'm thinking about the composition!

 

The upward thrust of the trunky stalk seems to be more important than the overhanging dark leaf.  That's sort of disappointing because i was drawn to the umbrella like overhang of it.  But when I draw for the painting it seems to stop all the energy if I include it.