Outliers

Outliers   oil/canvas   14 x 11 x .5

 We hike a lot.  We also notice trees a lor.  Our favorite walks take place at a reservoir close to our  home.  Trees that are vertical, healthy and upright abound.  Then there are those in the midst of being uprooted and have been caught in the hooks of the verticals, waiting to fall.  Vertical, to us, seems correct...all alive and well.  Horizontals are restful with a lack of energy.  (kind of like falling asleep on the couch at the end of the day)  But those diagonals give us pause....those forms caught in the interim between alive and restful.  So..........these outliers cling to vertical, yet lean towards the fall.  Are these trees leaning into the earth or into the water?  Tension.  And yet they cling.

A bit like us humans.

This painting was referenced by a photo taken on one of our winter outings.  While I do not paint many landscapes, the tension of these trees is undeniable.

Landscapes?

Freshly Shoveled Driveway   oil   11 x 14

Landscapes are my least favorite subjects, I'm afraid.  While I look out at the fresh environment, I am certainly taken with its beauty, but have no need whatsoever to replicate.  Interior::exterior.  Interiors, taken figuratively, are what move me.  

The artists in my classes always list landscape as one of their subject choices, so I comply.  In order to capture my interest, there simply must be a very personal reason to spend the effort.  In this case, a 22"  snowfall gave me just cause.  There were no snowplows for hire.  Two painting problems resulted.  Both were so very exciting.  One involved the play of the warm light against the cools of the shadows, temperatures, and the sky.  Cool dominant playing with warm.  the second involved the interesting topography of the lay of the snow:  harder vertical snowbanks and softer ones.  Shadows that helped to explain all of that.  Yes, I  feel tied into this picture.

And....I feel very very tired.