"Colors of Spring"

by

Donald Zolan

S/# 817/880

Mint/Never Framed

Paper Size:  20" x 22"

Pemberton & Oakes

Ship Flat

Zolan's own story about print:  One of my collectors wrote to say that to her crocuses have always meant the end of winter and the beginning of her favority season, spring.  I agree.  That's why I painted Crystal, one of my favorite subjects, crouching down by a row of crocuses in full bloom. 

I really wanted the picture to burst with spring beauty.  I wanted to show how everything comes to life when the sun's warmth returns after the long, cold winter.

I put in lots of sunlight to show how bright this spring morning is.  I have sunlight cascading down on everything--Crystal, the garden, the floers at her fingertips.  I even painted each crocus as if it had its own inner light.

I did all I could to make Crystal delicate to emphasize the softness of spring and new life.  So I gave her soft hair, a lacy dress, and showed her gently touching just one crocus.

"Colors of Spring" is a personal favority of mine.  I feel it keeps the wonder of early spring in my home all year.  I hope you feel the same way.

1937-2009:  Donald Zolan has been called "America's wonder artist" because he paints the wonder of early childhood.  His works are like magic doors to the wonderland where we all spent the first few years of our lives.

Zolan sees early childhood as a time when" . . .we were newcomers to this planet and we were fascinated.  Our first years were probably our graduate school in how to make the most out of being alive."  Some of his admirers feel that the sense of renewal that people get from his works on childhood comes from having the sleeping child in them reawakened. 

Because our senses were keener in childhood, Zolan fills his art with vivid colors, fine detail and sharp contrasts of lilght and dark.  He usually limits the detail work to the center of a piece of art because of our ability in childhood to focus on one thing to the exclusion of everything else.  He often uses light as a unifying force.  He may wrap a child in brilliant sunlight streaming down from above, or create backlighting to illuminate the child.  He excells at capturing the fleeting moment.  It is usually one that pulls us back to some childhood moment of rapt stillness and total absorption in the here and now.