I have no idea where this is, or where it came from. I can't even clearly recall how it started (well, I do remember that the cat came forward first). I don't know how the animals became buildings. I don't have any idea why elephants are wandering this city. I do know it first surfaced two months agao and has been on the board while two others were completed around it, jumping line.And I do know I like this one very much. It's what I wanted. That only happens this well once in a while. Maybe I have to get this much out of the way, where I can't chronicle the path, where I'm not paying attention to the steps, in order to reach this kind of place.
I don't have a title for this one, either, and that's also unusual, since titles seem to suggest themselves easily for most of my paintings.
19x19 - watercolor on Arches hot press. I used to go through a lot of Burnt Sienna as a teenager - I loved using it all over this painting.
Nothing drawn on any board at the moment - it may be a while before I have another one to show, or even before I'm ready to pick up a brush. Pencil for a bit, exploring the weird white world of the blank page and the things that emerge from that bright Arches fog.
5 comments:
well, it makes me sad there won't be any more paintings for awhile tho i should talk, right? :)
this is brilliant...it's so fantastical, it's a bit like reading one of your fantasy pieces, where you are off and running in all directions and tho this is very controlled, it isn't at the same time, there is this wonderful sense of fun, like what will happen if i do this-doubtful you did that but it 'feels' that way! those wandering elephants, especially the one who is smaller wandering into/underneath the light, you can stare at this for awhile to see what you didn't see....fabulous and fun!!
again, this one is so dream-like and amazing beyond wildest dreams. It's like the spirits of animals are watching over us, (instead of us watching over them as first thought). My favorite is the prayerful bunny in the middle. i know that whenever you come through that bright Arches fog it will be worth seeing!
It's wonderfully dreamlike and I can well understand why you like it now that it's all of a piece. The design forms are very strong with the individual components harmonizing in an almost mandala-like fashion. The combination of buildings and animals may have been unintended at the beginning but it's interesting to see the movement from countryside to a modern city tied together by the mostly domesticated creatures.
I love the flowering ears and the cat's Chesherish look. Is the pig a trophy or is he just lucky to have a good vantage point? The elephants will, of course, always look like bastions of wisdom and stability to me.
Congratulations too on a fine color balance. All is strange but somehow comforting and beautifully envisioned.
Each time I enlarge this, I see something new. That's the kind of thing that spurs my imagination.
This painting puts me in mind of the imagination of a small boy I know, one who very much loves animals. I keep thinking that perhaps our childhood imaginations do not really go away; they are simply industrialized and set into order differently as we age. Still, whimsy like a stream of elephants paces right on through the drudgeries of age.
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