Autumn
Seasonal treasures
Sunday, November 11th, 2007
While photographing the filigree on many of the decaying oak leaves in a park forest, leaning backwards with my head in the branches, a little green snake struck out at me, the delicate body about 8″ long and no wider than a baby finger. I wrote to the Biology Dept. at Texas University, and they identified it as a Rough Green Snake - Opheodrys aestivus - it’s nonvenomous.
Walking back home completely happy to have chosen that path, expecting no more treasure for the day, a leaf twirled in the breeze, hanging from a spider web strand.
Gold In The Mountains #1
Sunday, November 4th, 2007
Gold In The Mountains #1, finished - 20 x 16 inches Acrylics on stretched canvas. Mounted on a box-frame, extending out 2 extra inches on canvas-covered background, with rustic barn-wood finished edges.
This is one of those paintings that never felt truly finished, until this week. Started late in 2005, it has evolved through many changes. The first thumbnail shows the painting at a stage where I thought it finished and entered it into Artjury.com’s Spring/Summer online exhibition, and it was accept ed. At the time I liked the larger areas of flat orange-gold. About six months later I judged that the work needed more depth, so began a long process of repainting, scrubbing off, build-up, scraping, etc. The painting reached a few different stages where it could have passed for finished, but I was not entirely pleased, so continued until I was. One never knows beginning any painting, how long it will take.. The image above shows the painting as it is today, now well and truly finished! Click on the thumbnails below to enlarge and view a few stages in the life of Gold In The Mountains#1.
North Carolina
Monday, October 1st, 2007
Alain and I flew up to North Carolina for three days ( a little business trip and I tagged along—he threatened to take my camera with him and I was sure I could not manage without it!) We drove around the eastern countryside between Raleigh and Washington (NC) through old, old towns (it takes a looong time for wooden doors to shred, and a looong time for conditions to be just right for vines to sprout then twirl round and round, entwined and squished between panes of glass!) …old, old farms: tobacco, cotton, peanuts.. and an interesting gas station.
There is a lot of history in NC - fossil, human/settlers and Civil War history. We stayed at Kitty Hawk (first flight - Wright bros.) and walked the shores at various places along the narrow coast of the Outer Banks. We watched the sun rise and dolphins feed - too far away for good photos, even with the telephoto. As soon as the sun rose they swam away.
Along Cape Hatteras, groups of Grackles ate ripe grass seeds, bouncing up and down on the stems, their bodies too heavy for the tall grasses.
On Pony Island a large sand crab tried to buff up and look tough, but it was quite vulnerable there out in the open; all the other crabs scurried into holes but this one stayed, trying to hide in footprints, which offered no protection if we had been birds looking for a hearty meal.
Great fun to watch the behaviour for a while. It’s clearly outlined crab-shaped shadow following it everywhere, creating a few graphic photos that are perfect resource material for drawings and paintings but do not stand alone as good photography because it was moving so fast.
Just off the 2 1/2 hr. long ferry at Swan Quarter, and sunset with a short, wide rainbow after a storm that we managed to escape and watch from the better side.
NO OLF - we were curious about this sign in many people’s yards. The following website shows a video describing how the U.S. Navy has purchased over 30,000 acres of land near the eastern North Carolina coast, planning to move their pilot training program from Virginia.
Part of the huge contraversy is that over 75 families would be forced to leave their homes, many of them farming that land for generations. The human issues are enough, but the cause and effect on the wildlife and ecology would be drastic and unrepairable. Thousands of ducks and large flocks of snowgeese that feed in the area annually would no longer have sanctuary. The large birds would also be a danger to the jets.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XDmC1LD1Kc
…and what Nikkistory is complete without a moon?
All photographs printed on 11 x 17 100 lb. Satin finish cardstock high quality photographs are one of a kind, signed, most with white mat and a 3″ wide black frame. Please contact nikki_coulombe@hotmail.com for details about this or any Artwork you wish to purchase. (thanks!)
Calgary in September
Thursday, May 18th, 2006
Calgary in September 14 x 11 Oil pastels on paper ~ Part of the Paper Places series ~ Available, framed size 26 x 22 inches
I think of pastels to be drawings because no brush is involved, but they are commonly categorized elsewhere as paintings. Calgary in September placed Second in the Paintings category in Plano Art Association’s annual One-Two-Five Show Exhibition in Plano, Texas April 11 - May 8, 2007
Goldenrod
Sunday, April 23rd, 2006
Goldenrod, Alberta 14 x 11 Oil Pastels on paper
There are so many different goals to choose from with individual pieces; not attempting depth or realism so much here as playing with design, contrasting colors and texture.
Gold In The Mountains #2
Sunday, April 2nd, 2006
Gold In The Mountains #2 ~ 11 x 14 Oil Pastels, framed 22 x 26 inches
Poplar Trees (Aspen) in the Rocky Mountains during Autumn display large golden-yellow masses of leaves, represented here with strokes in diagonal direction. Tree trunks are marked vertically across the entire page, grounding the drawing as a whole compositionally. The green-black portion displays the vertical growth of evergreens. Less obvious are the horizontal strokes I felt were appropriate for the mountain, softening its nature and place it back in distance.