Beyond Summer Gate

"The house was quiet and the world was calm." ~ Wallace Stevens

This grand English country house resonates with the splendid solitude of its sylvan setting.  It is just such a center of tranquility as the poet imagines: the quiet heart of a calm world.  The harmony between man and nature, between the human and the divine, is mirrored in a scene such as the one I portray in "Beyond Summer Gate".  This house, with its lavish flower garden, is somehow beyond time.  It whispers of the eternal.

Summer is the season of color.  The full range of nature's rainbow hues are on display in this floral paradise.  Indeed, I've taken some liberties in "Beyond Summer Gate".  I've compressed the season, allowing the early-flowering dogwood and the late blooming azalea to display their brilliant blossoms together.  Here you'll find climbing roses, bluebells, foxgloves, and fruit trees all in full flower as they never are in nature.  The artist, after all, is entitled to a certain license, so long as it is in the service of beauty.

~ Thomas Kinkade