My First Landscape

I suppose it's fitting after my post about heading more definitely toward abstract work that I should do my first standalone landscape in many, many years. I don't find anything odd about this.

I'm doing this painting because I was struck day after day by the beauty of Canaan Valley in West Virginia a few weeks ago. It's a high mountain valley and the habitat, as residents say, is more like Canada than West Virginia. Yes I know some might say, 'Umm. Canada's pretty big you know.' But I think you get the idea. Probably the most beautiful area we saw was the Freeland Rd. Tract of the Canaan Valley National Wildlife Refuge. The rich yellows, orange, reds of the foliage complemented the deep green conifers, bluish mountains and rich blue sky, which was then reflected in the ponds. A closeup photo of some of the foliage looked like a Jackson Pollock painting but with Matisse's colors.

In the face of such beauty an artist can't but help want to portray it. I did one quick felt-tip pen drawing on site. I think I've already shown it here. But I also wanted to do something more developed. So this is my first landscape in I'm pretty sure at least 25 years. Certainly it's my only developed landscape in 25 years.

But this is just the first. In my mind the purpose of art is to express the artist's view of the world. He can be struck by the beauty of the world and want to portray is like a photograph. I don't say 'realistically' because it's too difficult to say just what that really is. The idea anyway is to portray what he sees. But what I saw was brilliant color. I wish this painting showed that but it doesn't.

So I'll probably do some more landscapes of this area. And I wouldn't be surprised if some of them become abstract, because that may just seem like the best way to express the whole experience of being there.

Laughing Gulls in Watercolor

I'm sure I've mentioned before that my background in art is primarily abstract. It's also large! For many years my smallest paintings were 4'x6'. Most were 6'x8'. But it's been awhile since I've worked at that large size.

As I've investigated art based on birds, or earlier insects, it made more sense to start small. I was unfamiliar with both birds and insects. If I'd started working large I would have ended up with gross, untruthful, and dull generalizations. Working small has forced me to look more closely at both(the insects very closely since they were drawn under a microscope).

BUT, every once in while it can drive me nuts. I think the recent detailed watercolor pencil work pushed me to the brink. I needed the freedom of something less constricting. So today I went back to straight watercolor.



The sketch at top is a quick sketch, with a few color notes, that I did just for practice. The second version is on watercolor paper rather than sketch paper. The birds are Laughing Gulls, seen in April, 2009 just as they made their arrival in Cape May, NJ. Though they'll eventually be on every lamp post in the area, at this time they were in one of the ponds at 'The Meadows,' a great area owned by The Nature Conservancy.

I'm not big on scenic photos or paintings. But sunrise or sunset here always changes my mind. The light and color are just too beautiful.



In this case the sunset which is in back of me as I took the photo is reflected in the background of the painting, with some of it spilling out onto the gulls and water. It was a stunning sight and made the black and white of the Laughing Gulls particularly striking.

I'm stopping for today, before I do something I regret. Tomorrow I'll probably do at least some more work on it.

I should add that this still isn't a large painting. It's only 7"x10" like many of my recent paintings. It's more the free brushwork that has made it seem 'larger' to me. But it is time to start increasing the size of my watercolors. I do not yet approach them as canvases on which to orchestrate color, value, texture and light as I always did with abstract art. I'm very much missing that type of painting.