I’m currently taking a wonderful course with Gage Opdenbrouw called Close to Home: Painting the Poetry of Everyday Life through the Washington Studio School. Gage is a beautiful soul creating beautiful, soulful art. The title of his course alone drew me in. After the first few weeks, I figured a few things out and wanted to share a personal discovery with you.

At first, I couldn’t find a nook or cranny in my home that inspired a painting for the class. It’s official - my home is boring. No interesting colors, vignettes or passages. But I had to paint something. I finally decided to just capture the rare moments of light that briefly make their way through the old oak trees surrounding my home. I spent about 70 minutes on the study shown here. (It’s important to limit my time on these studies in order to maintain an abstracted quality.)

In this space, the south sun finds these windows through the trees for a brief period in the afternoon. I always take pause to notice every shape of the shadows on the floor and the cool shadowed grays inside framing the sunny, warm and currently colorful leaves outside.

As I was painting, I thought about why my home is devoid of color and interest. Mostly, its because I spent many years as a caregiver, overlapping that role between three loved ones. Before they became ill, my husband and I had started renovations - floors were ripped out, etc. For 6+ years my house remained in that state. It was so dirty and so dark. I hated coming home. Then after each loved one passed away, our home was then full of boxes of their belongings. I couldn't breathe under the weight of the 'things' and the chaos.

When I was finally able to put the house back together, I needed peace and minimalization. Everything had to go. Even color. The walls are now a light bluish-gray, the floors are gray bamboo, the draperies are dusty blue and oatmeal stripe, the furniture is oatmeal...you get the idea. It's truly lacking life. But it was my quiet cloud where I could finally land softly without all of the signs of chaos and grief.

As I reflected and painted, I realized that maybe my home isn't as boring as I thought. Maybe it’s the book cover of a richer story that tells of challenges, grief, resilience and love - and here, in this humble space, is where the dust will settle and the sunlight trickling in will find it. And here is where the painting process will feed the artist.

I didn’t capture this sun-swept living room corner the way I envisioned. But far more rewarding results were realized - the artist finally looked beyond the surface of her place and things - and found signs of poetry.

Stay on this journey,

Tonna Holtz

Have you found the poetry in your surroundings? Would love to hear from you in the Comments section below.

(In a Different Light. 8” x 10” oil on Ampersand Gessobord-Museum Series Panel. Available. Contact me to inquire.)

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