"When dawn spreads its paintbrush on the plain, spilling purple... ," Sons of the Pioneers theme for TV show "Wagon Train." Dawn on the mythic Santa Fe Trail, New Mexico, looking toward Raton from Cimarron. -- Clarkphoto. A curmudgeon artist's musings melding metaphors and journalism, for readers in more than 150 countries.

Sunday, January 9, 2022

When Nature Speaks

"Sunset on ice," 8 x 10 acrylic on canvas panel

Sometimes Nature speaks to you if you listen. Not in words, but in impulses, in sights and sounds and moods.

So it was when I saw  a dramatic photo by my blog friend Alan Bates on one of his hikes in the Turkey Mountain urban wilderness at Tulsa this week.

Alan's photo
Alan and I met online several years ago when our blogs caught each other's attention. Some of that was because we both have memories of New Mexico,  and a love for the outdoors and photography. 
He's also an avid geocacher, and spends more time outdoors than I do, hiking and bicycling. On this photo he added drama with a Snapseed filter and the iphone's ArtCard app.

We follow each other on Facebook, that's the story of the photo of sunset on a partially frozen pond. I'd been searching for something different to paint, and Nature spoke.

 I also tried to add drama, taking artistic license with it to flip it horizontally for composition purposes. Then I just started painting, using palette knives for texture, not sure where it was going. Before I was through I discovered I'd gone back to favorite complementary colors, oranges and blues. Brushwork added a few finishing touches. 

I discovered more about myself here too. I was not tied down to reality--my usual fault. Instead  I painted looser, ending up more impressionistic, with  more texture and more vibrant color (the colors you see are actual). It just seemed to happen.


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1 comment:

  1. Yogi♪♪♪January 10, 2022 at 2:45 PM

    I finally got to my laptop so I could see bigger view than on my phone. Your painting pops up and what gets me is that the lighting in the grass foreground just right. Your version is what I saw live, my edited photo turned the light down a little bit.

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