Forests
« Previous EntriesFraming on “Northern Delights” update
Tuesday, December 14th, 2010
Northern Delights, acrylics on canvas, 24 x 36 inches on top of a 36 x 48 inches canvas, work on framing in progress. Left: Day 01, above: Day 02
Frame, Day 02: The abstract framed around impressionist styles don’t really belong together, but I kind of like it anyway; so unexpected..unpredictable..rebellious!
Frame, Day 01: I could never find the right frame for this painting — ones I tried ended the picture too abruptly at the edges, yet I knew it needed something, so yesterday I mounted it onto another canvas. I’ve found the solution, not only for this piece, but for my own sense of peace. Work as reprieve from work…imagine that!
Here is the finished painting as it was previously. I used masking medium to block out areas that are intended to stay white, and am continuing the same technique on the back frame.
Stars and Fireflies
Sunday, June 27th, 2010
Home from Singapore for a few days, and having to go north to pack up the Dancing With Trees exhibition, I drove up to Ontario first so I could see my sons in Canada before Christmas. At night in the fields and trees from Tennessee to Michegan there are stars and fireflies in the trees – so magical! Until I can express it in paint (and I must!), here is a quick photoshop impression.
Dancing With Trees Art list for Madison, WI
Friday, April 16th, 2010
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Paintings as shown are not to scale in comparison to one another
The Dancing With Trees Art Exhibition celebrates the importance of trees and forests throughout history, portraying their diversity and relationships through a variety of creative associations. Twenty three of the paintings in this collection are on exhibit in the Steinhauer Trust Gallery at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum, May 1st through June 30th, 2010. Opening Reception Saturday May 1st, 12:45 – 4:00 p.m.
All life forms on this planet proliferated, continue to flourish, and ultimately depend on the existence of trees. While the message is urgent, I consider humanity’s role on the planet as positive, with the statement that creativity is our greatest asset; that “Our carbon footprint is worthy”. Further, creative thinking is our most primal, yet highly advanced and ever-evolving contribution toward solutions to healing wrongs done and changing ingrained habits to ones that are more appreciative of the environment in general.
Purchase Art here Purchase Photography here
Little pen sketches
Thursday, February 25th, 2010
Marie Lake campsite, Alberta, 8 x 10 inches pen on paper
I’m trying to get a painting started that’s all planned in my mind’s eye, but have been finishing written articles and upgrading/updating the websites, so these little pen sketches are all I can manage lately; maybe a series is borne?
The Campsite
Wednesday, October 21st, 2009
Above, finished Oct 29th: The Campsite, Maine, USA – 15 x 22 inches Watercolors on 140 lb. acid free cold press premium paper
Thumbnails: 1) Value sketch using Payne’s Gray 2) Oct 21st in progress 3) finished, left detail
~ 2nd week of Watercolor course offered by Jo Williams ~
Sounds of Silence
Thursday, October 15th, 2009
Sounds of Silence, 36 x 24 x 2 inches acrylics on canvas, gallery wrapped sides painted – finished today. After a second application of mask medium only on the snowflakes this time, some unbleached titanium and yellow ochre brought color back to the trunks. Snowflake mask was then removed. Still deciding on a price for this, and Dawn at Bell Rock also.
Oct 13th, above: Phase 01 and 02
Oct 14th, Phase 03 and 04: Mask medium removal, then highlighting snowflakes.
P.S. View Virginia Wieringa’s coincidental blog entry: a relevant poem by Thomas Merton, and an icon painting entitled Holy Silence.
Some work, some don’t
Friday, March 27th, 2009
48 x 24 x 2 inches acrylics on canvas, using masking medium to outline the mossy dead branches of a Grand Fir in front of a giant Sequoia.
Some work, some don’t, but I haven’t given up on it yet; work still in progress, but since this won’t be in the Raleigh show in 7 weeks I can’t afford to spend more time on it now. I hoped the flat white would work against a fairly realistic background, but it doesn’t. This could go a few ways: 1) flatten the whole surface and make the painting an abstract 2) downsize the sequoia, add shadow and color to the fir then create a more realistic forest scene 3) block out more dead firs with more masking fluid, echoing the main one, still as an abstract or realistic or 4) ditch it! Some paintings are worth spending time exploring when they reach a certain stage, and with others chalk it up as experience, re-cover the stretcher frame and move on.
Paint Arson
Thursday, March 26th, 2009
Paint Arson, 11 x 11 x 3 inches acrylics on canvas, gallery wrapped sides painted: finished, and phases 1 and 2. Most of the Magic Square series are signed on the side, so the signature is superimposed.
Buying a new jar of Cadmium Red medium hue was just the thing to reboot, then re-route some old habits I was falling back into, like over-working paintings. Here I began with a lush Redwood forest in mind, thinking I could safely stir up some inspiration with the hot scarlet under my usual cool green palette… I did not intend to start a fire!
A new color invigorates the work process like nothing else can, and adds renewed life to your results as well. Incorporated as a base, straight out of the tube or mixed with your usual palette, a new color changes everything. Here now, as the painting is seen in the second thumbnail, there’s nothing I can do except follow it and see where it leads. The strength and intensity of this color as a base is dictating a whole other unintended but interesting direction, and it’s in charge for a while. I hope I can manage it.
Painting, whatever the subject may be, is a journey through all kinds of unanticipated thoughts and associations; some are short and sweet, ending within 1 - 6 hours and not much more than a visual, but some are packed full of adventure that isn’t even realized until surfacing from a few hours of work.
The forest fires were still-smoldering when we walked through the Californian Redwood and Sequoia forests last November, and my memory lapses into romanticized imagery of smoky rays of light in the sunset. It’s perplexing that the effects of forest devastation could be so pretty when the fact is that just the week before, a raging fire was the cause of all that beauty, and not just the smoky sunset, but fire enables the entire forest to flourish. As I’m painting this I’m thinking about all kinds of how fire is a naturally occurring event like rain and snow, and is an essential part of forest cycles…and of how fire is destructive but supports renewal and re-creation as well.
Fire opens pine cones to disperse their seeds, controls pests and disease. By burning weeds and weaker trees that rob sunlight and nutrients from healthier trees and plants, it also clears the way for new seeds to sprout. Ash aerates, and contains properties that determine the quality of soil and what is able to grow there. Realizing that certain trees only regenerate with the aid of fire, like the giant Sequoia cones only release seeds through fire, today’s standard fire management practice is to allow naturally occurring forest fires to burn, still with a mind to sensibly control it.
So what element does it take to open a painter’s eyes to new possibilities? A jar of Cadmium Red medium hue!
Iguana Onna
Wednesday, March 18th, 2009
March 19th: Work still in progress, earlier progress below. Today layering thin washes of pale yellow, placing the iguana more into the background. Some of the details of the Strangler Fig growth that are now covered up will be brought back into focus since this is more about the tree than the iguana. Posting the painting on the blog is helpful because it’s viewed differently than while painting or studying it..it’s somehow easier to see areas that still need change when looking at it on-screen.
The Strangler Fig is a parasite. Seeds sprout in moss or decaying matter among the branches of rainforest canopies. Roots gradually extend downward and over time completely surround the host tree, which dies while nourishing the Strangler Fig growing in its place.
March 14th, March 13: above thumbnails, Phases 1, 2 and 3
March 18: searching for a way to help this not look so mediocre; I may do as in Myrtle At The Zoo and define some Strangling Fig leaves in the foreground then blur the Iguana and other background details.
Ceiba Leaves
Sunday, March 8th, 2009
Decaying Ceiba Leaves, Lake Cote Cloud Forest Reserve, Costa Rica, 11 x 11 x 3 inches acrylics on canvas.
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