“Joy in the Morning” – 24 x 36

Joy in the Morning

For 35 years my family has made an annual pilgrimage to the Oregon Country Fair. It isn’t just a fair, it’s a reunion. Friends we haven’t seen since the year before. Strangers becoming familiar faces. Music weaving through the trees from every direction, harmonies layering in the air, musicians pouring joy into every corner of the forest.

The cello has always spoken to me differently than other instruments. It carries the voice of the earth…deep, resonant, and grounding, yet full of layers that take time to hear. When I painted the woman at the center of this piece, I gave her closed eyes deliberately. She isn’t performing. She isn’t aware of being watched. She is completely inside the music, the way I disappear inside a painting when everything else falls away and only the work exists. That state of flow, of total presence without worry, is what I wanted to capture.

Around her, nothing is accidental.

The owl watches quietly from the shadows, not as a threat, but as a guardian. His presence brings unspoken security, the kind that allows you to close your eyes and play without fear. The small bird perches close and whispers joy directly into her ear, the way a true friend does. The poppies rising around her feet carry two meanings she may not even know are there: prosperity and remembrance, abundance and the honoring of what has come before.

And climbing through it all, the clematis, symbol of ingenuity, wisdom, and spiritual growth, always reaching higher, never content to stay where it started.

Together they form a painting about what it feels like when music, nature, community, and something quietly sacred all arrive in the same moment. Heartfelt music rising like morning light, carrying hope and the quiet reassurance that joy always returns.

This is Joy in the Morning. May it bring that same feeling into your space, every single day.

Details:

• Original Painting signed by Artist
• Oil over mixed media
• 24″ x 36″ x 1.75″ stretched canvas
• Gloss varnish protective finish
• Ready to hang with picture wire on back
• Canvas edges are painted to match painting
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