Friday, October 30, 2009

Painting in the Mountains

We packed a lot into our two week vacation in the mountains. A lot of walking in beautiful places. I had less time for painting than I hoped, but I think I relaxed more deeply because it was more of a break from everything usual.

I did paint four pieces. These two were smaller, and faster. They were like warm-ups after not painting for several months. The other two are larger and each will have its own post.

Both began with random blind contour drawings and then "found" themselves. My surroundings affected all four paintings - certainly for content.

The first is watercolor on cold press paper (not my favorite - I don't care for the texture) = about 7 by 10 inches.

The second (with the bird) is watercolor with a little white charcoal, on hot press - about 10 by 14 inches. One of the things I "eat up" while in the Blue Ridge Mountains is the way the wild and the tame (woods and field) are arranged over the land, and the feeling of being up over everything. This latter piece captures a little of that - and my longing to break free and soar out over it instead of being earth bound beside the trees.

Neither of these pieces are as free as I want. I wasn't as engaged as I wanted to be. But what do I expect after neglecting my brushes for several months...

5 comments:

giggles said...

Welcome back. Missed you.

I love your style of paining. It is just so different than everything else out there....

susan said...

Your trees have a lot of character but they don't make the painting seem heavy. I think they're both very nice pieces and I'll look forward to seeing the longer studies. Welcome back and I hope all is well with you and yours.

Steve Emery said...

Giggles - Thanks! I'm glad they look different, since I'm not trying for anything except my own appetite.

Susan - Thank you for the comment about the trees. I took hundreds of photos of trees in the mountains, and I hope to do a lot with them in the next months.

Jodi Dickhaut said...

Have you tried BFK? I know its for printing but that gorgeous soft fiber texture is heaven to work on. hot press of coarse.
just a thought.
I enjoy your pallet very much. is the bird really about how you feel, or just a symbol you are using to illustrate a scene?

Steve Emery said...

JD - I have to look into BFK. And the bird is both.