It's not abstract but I follow the muse.

I belong to a group of wonderful women painters called, Women Painters West (WPW). It was founded in 1921 in Laguna Beach California, so that women artist, largely excluded from the art world, could form a community, and show their work. To celebrate the 100th anniversary, we were challenged to pick one of the original members and make a painting influenced by her work.

I chose for my WPW 100 Anniversary artist, Virginia Wooley (1884-1971).  Virginia Wooley was born in Selma, Alabama. She moved to Chicago in 1904 to study at the AIC.  She continued her art studies in Paris. In her earlier years, she visited Laguna Beach by  stagecoach. She returned to live there in 1923 where she created an impressive body of work, mostly landscapes, not only of Laguna Beach CA, but also New Orleans, Charleston, and Santa Fe. She helped to create the Laguna Festival of the Arts in 1932. Her painting “Laguna Haze”, (trees in a coastal landscape, oil on board, 12" H x 10" W) was my primary influence. My intention was to imagine Laguna as she may have seen it in the 1930s. First, I did a representational study to absorb her light, palette, and shapes. I then imagined Virginia Wooley in 2021 with a large scale, acrylic paint palette and a preference for the abstract. "Laguna21" is 40"40" acrylic on canvas.