Sad Bird

Another view of an abandoned plane. I have always been attracted to defunct technology, whether it's old falling down barns, or airplanes that will never go up again. Also the demands of working loosely within and around the hard forms of mechanical objects can improve my approach to landscape painting, which often allows too much freedom, or I should say, less discipline.

No More Flights

Just flights of fancy. This fanciful bird is 9x12 on pastelmat with pastel over acrylic washes.

A correction: last night's woodpecker was really a common merganser I was informed by a wise and perceptive neighbor, who saw the photo I took of the bird. It was a very uncommon bird for me, in an uncommon location, my backyard instead of the river. I think it recovered and flew away, a flight of desperation.

The Flippant Painting

I have replaced my red barns with this red falling down hangar, and its abandoned airplanes. It's really just a rectangle with red and green, and an X in the middle. People ask me why the painting is upside down. I tell them it's the plane that upside down. There's actually a photograph of the plane somewhere on the Internet that shows the plane right side up, tied down, facing the hangar. A later storm blew it against the hangar.

Flippant

A while back, I did a few sheds because they say something about being human, and I think abandoned airplanes also comment on the human condition, or I should write that drawings of abandoned airplanes do that. Seriously. Anyway, they are fun to make. I will get back to the serious stuff tomorrow.

Plane Face

This is the Mooney front where the engine once attached, a face without a nose.

Grounded

Somebody mowed the grass in front of the airplane, but not behind it. By late summer the grass will be above the wings. When I see this plane, I think it belongs to a big merry-go-round.

Dashboard

Next time I'll try to include more of the landscape around the plane, but this time it's the inscape in the plane that was appealing. This one is 9x12, charcoal and black pastel.

Colored Bug

I had to try this one. I think I am learning how to paint. This is 9x12 on colourfix suede, pastel over acrylic wash.

Ghost Plane

Once the engine has been removed the plane doesn't stay level with the ground, I have been told. Already the spring growth is overtaking the plane. It's called a Mooney and had a longer snout.

Bug

One can't stay in Shangri-la for long. Back to the bugs. I revisited the airplanes today to see if they are still there. They are. I am creating a group of drawings and paintings of the planes for possible inclusion in an exhibition later this summer.

Richard Sewall, in his The Life of Emily Dickinson, summarized the poet as follows: "...she is the poet of the passing insight, the moment of vision, the unitary experience." Wouldn't it be nice to be a painter of the passing insight, the moment of vision, the unitary experience.

Landscape Nose

This is a picture plane.

I read recently that the old airport where these planes are located, and they may not be there for much longer, actually was used by Charles Lindbergh in the 1930s, though I think this plane postdates Lindbergh. It's hard to believe, given how small they are, and their condition, that they once soared high in the skies.

Dead Bug

Like a giant dead bug, this abandoned airplane lies on its back, presumably tossed there by a violent wind.

Less Plain

I used a different approach for this one, and achieved a more vigorous drawing. It's almost all black pastel.

Ancient Birds

The remains of an old airfield nearby has remnants of old airplanes. They once flew in the air, but now lie prone on the ground just like the old tree trunks in the woods.