About:

The Song the Rain Sings, 60 x 50

Water media on canvas

2019

Artist statement:

Is a work done over another work. A long time ago I had made a rule for myself not to try and fix something in a painting that bothers me. I did that because usually ended up repainting the entire piece and that seemed silly. So I stopped doing it. If a work bothers me I just unframe it and put it in a plastic sleeve and hope someone else might like it. I have found what bothers me in some of my works doesn’t bother other folks – again the individualism creeps into the art playground.

But for The Song the Rain Sings, the original piece I covered up was done on a canvas – and I wanted to paint on a canvas and I didn’t have a stretcher ready. So I covered it up. I really like the piece now there is a wonderful mixture of landscape, journeys, critters and a rain storm. Some folks have asked me why the umbrella is appearing in my works lately. I think of myself, or other folks finding shelter there, shelter from what ever it is that we need to have shelter from. It for me is a huge symbol.

And the song – travels through out the work. Have you ever just stood in the rain and listened to the rain? It makes so many different sounds depending on what it lands on. The sound of the rain on a lake is different from the sound of the rain on a tin roof, or the sound of the rain on leaves in a forest, or on the hood of a car. Here in this landscape, the sounds of the rain are quiet sounds like chimes.

Christine Alfery

The Song the Rain Sings