March 13, 2008

Trendy are the neutrals

I take a bit of a walk to the far south side of Angelkeep’s ground. It’s done nearly every day. The only color yet evident on the short trek is the yellow of the corn kernels. They lay on the ground for the winter gray coated deer that will devour them during the night hours. They seem to spend less daytime here in the recent past. They must be finding food more easily this year. The season has been without accumulating significant precipitation ground cover (big words I found in the thesaurus to mean snow.) White came and it went, even an ice-free pond a few days in January. Without a white snow background the deer camouflage easily into the line of trees beside Angelkeep. Darkened rainy skies also curtail my ability to spot the animals.

It seems the entire world, at least on this acre, has gone to neutrals. Even the evergreens have rustiness winterizing their green hue. I’m longing for spring colors. By the calendar it is one week off (see who’s counting?). It seems to me that God should have recognized human need for more color on longer darker days of the year.

One of my favorite contemporary artists had a long beginning, and quite successful, period of painting watercolor pieces using a palette of only neutral colors. I enjoy his work from neutral color. Andrew Wyeth was the son of N. C. Wyeth, who was famous as illustrator of many classic books. There was a summer trip to the Brandywine area of Wyeth’s house to see his gallery. Four reproductions of the neutral pictures were purchased. They hang in the house at Angelkeep, a contradiction to my visual displeasure with the natural world outside on this day.

Two black ink etchings, both by the same artist, hang over the patio wall windows. Because of age the paper has tanned. Frames are brown. No color, but they’re a beautiful pair.

I fall guilty. Many of my own colorful photographs are turned into sepia tones or black and white photo copies when full color is available and vivid. Professional photographers and “photos for art’s sake” often take the neutral image route for emphasis. Some camera artists have made a career of avoiding the color wheel.

Chasing a dragonfly last summer brought results. It finally landed on Angelpond’s edge in a stand of waterside grass. I reclined with my head in the dirt to get a close-up camera angle with the blue sky as the background. Being on a hill, I nearly rolled into the pond--camera, dusty hair, and all. A copy was enlarged and framed for our dragonfly themed bathroom. The print’s in black and white. Go figure!

I should be ecstatic over this winter, nearly done. It’s been predominantly a rainy, muddy, sepia and gray winter. My peeve, s-n-o-w, generally is remembered so far only for intermittent sprinkles (we’ll pay for that in April). Well there was that nasty time in early January, and then…I tend to forget.

Perhaps my lack of enthusiasm for a natural neutral look is because my hair is turning gray, I’m getting numbers of brown age spots, the pages of my favorite books are turning russet, and my dentist says my teeth and gums are beginning to show tawny stains of excessive drinking of hot black liquid.

A Nashville, IN, honeymoon photo takes a prime spot on a table of family pictures in standing frames. Gwen and I are in a multitude of shades of sepia. Gwen’s in a brown boa, tan gloves, a large flowered hat (medium umber), and a floor length sweeping ruffled dress matching the gloves and pearls. I’m sporting a tan tin star, rusty colored side arm (at the ready), and a coat, hat, scarf, vest, and trousers all in matchless tones of the cuttlefish color. It’s a fun photo causing smiles of sepia.

It’s peculiar that I fail to delight in the natural Angelkeep surrounding in its winter’s-end sepia season. Cheer regarding winter might perk up with a box of chocolates—dark or white?

I can appreciate fine art in neutral colors. I have been known to drool over an exquisite black and white ink drawing. Good old me can enjoy the old black and white art illustrations in my old Indiana authors’ publications. I enhance my color digital pictures into sepia tones or black and white and show Gwen how cleaver I have become. An Ansel Adams book is on a shelf. I’m as conservative as Garrison Keillor is liberal. So why do I judge distasteful the backyard natural neutrals when neutrals are contemporarily trendy?

Perhaps God simply is giving us a “trendy” winter of neutrals here at Angelkeep.

Mr. Daugherty is a Wells County resident who, along with his wife Gwen, enjoy their back yard and have named it “Angelkeep.”

by ALAN DAUGHERTY

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