Valley of Fire is a wild landscape of swirls. You can see the layers of geological history — layers of sand turned to waves of stone. The warm colors stun at sunrise. It’s one of those places where a photo will do — it doesn’t really need to be painted at all. It’s already an abstract expression of emotion.
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yosemite valley - golds
Inspired by views of Mount Watkins, from my December hike on the Snow Creek Falls trail. Color studies.
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acadia national park
I dated a sailor from Maine who was always telling me there was this place I’d like. “You should really go to Mount Desert Island. There’s hiking; it’s beautiful. I think you’d really like it.” Fifteen years later I made it there. He was right; I liked it.
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patagonia attachments
yosemite work on paper
Finally had a chance to lay these flat and photograph them.
Acrylic ink, sumi ink, pencil, and oil pastel on paper
22 x 30 "
attachments
A batch of glacier-inspired paintings wasn't working for me. I revisited them a few times but they were exhausted and so was I. In a final effort to salvage the lines and colors, I cut them into components and assembled them into new works. These attachments are working much better now.
more landscapes
A typical studio flow:
laying out a grid of surfaces and working on them at the same time.
Usually one or two turn out right.
Here are some from this weekend. I will probably rework these but in the mean time, here they are in progress...
glaciers on paper
Sumi & acrylic inks layered for depth with a touch of pencil and oil pastels
mixed media on paper 22" x 36"
lichen stick studies
A friend collected sticks covered in moss and lichen for my booth display last weekend. Now that the bustle of Renegade is over, I am putting these sticks to other uses: lichen covered stick studies with sumi ink on 5x7" and 8x10" paper. Looking at this growth in black and white pulls attention to the shape and texture in a new way. The drawing are piling up and I must say, they look quite delightful grouped together!
moss balls/ ball moss
These bundles of green cling to tree branches all over Austin. Their strikingly creative name is "ball moss" (it was pretty easy to find them when I googled "mossy balls in austin trees"). But contrary to their name, they are not moss at all. They are air plants! Bromeliads. Tillandsia recurvata. Names aside, I collected a bunch and brought them inside to paint.
lichen littles
I popped-up at a local venue in San Jose over President's Day weekend and it was suuuuuuuuper sloooooow. (Seriously, I sold 2 things and made $11... which is made worse by the fact that I paid nearly triple that to participate). [insert sad trombone sound] Thankfully, I had packed my paints so I was able to turn my sad pop-up shop into a happy pop-up studio. Busted out a bunch of lichen inspired abstracts. Here they are drying after getting sprayed with fixative:
Some of these are pretty fantastic and seem finished. Others, I want to rework a bit. All are gouache and oil pastel on 5x7" paper. Here are some of my favs before getting scanned + a sneak peak into how they'll look when I post to my webshop: