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Morning Dogwood

When I say that a painting ‘seems to paint itself,’ I don’t mean that it requires no artistry or application of skill and effort on my part. What I do mean is that the painting seems to possess a logic that operates without my conscious intervention.

Morning Dogwood will make my meaning clearer. The painting, which has become a follow-up to my Afternoon Light, Dogwood, started its life as a Plein Air impression of a tree shaded gazebo that I saw on a trip to Hawai’i.

I brought the canvas home, kept it in my studio, and glanced at it from time to time. It occurred to me, and then became a very powerful impression, that the trees should be pink flowering dogwoods rather than the tropical trees of Hawai’i. I actually sanded down some of the heavy Plein Air brushwork, painted in the dogwoods shrouding the gazebo in lavish blooms, and stood amazed at the vision of Eden that seemed to paint itself in Morning Dogwood.

I think you will understand me when I say that art is an adventure. I’ve added an inviting path to the gazebo and to the open gate that lies beyond, to suggest that the adventurous possibilities of Morning Dogwood are limitless.

  • Thomas Kinkade has hidden two N’s hidden in Morning Dogwood as an ongoing tribute to his wife Nanette.
  • Morning Dogwood is the second painting in Thom’s new collection Dogwood Gardens. The first painting in this series was Afternoon Light, Dogwood.
  • This painting originally began as a Plein Air study of Hawai’i’s tropical trees, but once Thom got back to his studio, the inspiration took over and changed the canvas from tropical trees to pink dogwoods. Morning Dogwood seemed to paint itself!
Title Morning Dogwood
Published April 1995
Subject Location Hawaii, USA
Collection Dogwood Gardens

Image Sizes

12" x 18"

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