Snow and Frost and Chill...oh my.............

The Birch Brothers   watercolor   20.25 x 13

No, really....just half.  Half a piece of pie.  Half 'n Half.  Half a slice....not the whole.  And, my favorite....half a cookie.  (Never mind that I will retrieve the other half in a relatively short period of time)  There are indeed times when a whole won't do....even a whole stroke.  Such was the case with "The Birch Brothers".  I knew that the counter-spaces between branches at the top would be important in its rendering.  Not being a fan of masking fluid and, I believe, the thick, chunky and clumsy shapes that it leaves behind (ask my students), I knew that this large area would have to be worked in a push and pull fashion.  Lay it in.  Take it away.  I like happenstance.  Surprises.  After a pass or two, the area was far too described....the strokes laid in told too much of the story...not enough ambiguity.  And so I headed for the basement laundry tub.  I used extreme water pressure on the top of the work.  The pigment came off unevenly much to my delight, leaving pocks of white paper.  Further application.  Further destruction ensued.  Back and forth.  More water pressure.  Some scraping.  Until I had achieved the feel that I wanted.  Andrews turquoise became my best friend. Nothing ventured.  Nothing gained.

The Birch Brothers...

The Birch Brothers   Watercolor   20.25 x 13


Scraps of brightly colored wrapping paper and bits of ribbon.  Strings of lights rewound.  Cookie tins emptying.  Early morning warmth from burning hearth.  Errant pine needles here and there.  Memories.  Quiet.  Quiet.  Quiet.

Back to the studio.

Add...subtract...construct...deconstruct...create...Birch Brothers

The Birch Brothers   Watercolor   20.5 x 13

The painting of trees is something that painters do on a regular basis.  Those plein air painters seem to have it down to a science.....the lightest most suggestive trees in the background and gradually more suggestion in the middle and fore-grounds.  Those trees are usually just a part of the story, so their suggestive nature is a given.  Painting a singular tree or grouping is yet another matter, where the story IS the tree....where animation and gesture are oh-so-important.  The tree becomes a figure of sorts.  When we tackled the subject of trees in a current watercolor class, I chose this grouping that I pass daily.  The focal area on the birch bunch was wonderfully manageable.  The upwards cluster of tangling branches not-so.  My goal was, of course, an overall feel of late winter.  Those top branches weren't nearly as important.  Yet the push and pull of branches over and under, branches hidden and viewed, became very difficult as every effort to describe them was just too deliberate.  Addition.  Subtraction.  Construction.  Deconstruction.  Every bit of my work includes all of the above.  It is part of my process.  It is who I am.  A forceful spray from the basement hose (kept carefully away from the focal area) provided the effect I needed as well as the additional bonus of sparkling frost-like texture.  Nothing ventured.  Nothing gained.

The Birch Brothers is the result.