Quarry

This weekend I visited a quarry in Vermont. These are 5x7 sketches in preparation for larger paintings. This quarry is a cube of limestone cut out of a hillside. I don't have details yet on when the work was done. These sketches show the view from the top, which is a bit scary if you don't like heights.

Triptych

Another view of the canal from nearly the same spot, but a different day. Today, actually, or this morning early. I have always been intrigued by Kevin MacPherson's Reflections Upon a Pond series (see http://www.reflectionsonapond.com/ ). I'm doing a canal.

Snow on Frozen Canal and the Case for Art

Actually the ice is soft and mushy, not frozen. What a difference a day makes.

The following is from Karen Armstrong's book, The Case for God, which makes a case for art:

"If the historian is right about the function of the Lascaux caves, religion and art were inseparable from the very beginning. Like art, religion is an attempt to construct meaning in the face of the relentless pain and injustice of life. As meaning-seeking creatures, men and women fall very easily into despair. They have created religions and works of art to help them find value in their lives, despite all the dispiriting evidence to the contrary."

So the next time you despair about your painting, take a long view, keep on working, and see that you are doing the right thing.

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Iced Canal

The water in the canal was lowered by a couple feet recently. I don't know why, but the exposed rocks on the shoreline creates a lunar edging. Then the canal has frozen over adding to the barrenness. With a bright early morning sun, just an inch over the horizon, behind your back, one sees the above.

In his book on Cezanne's composition, Erle Loran writes about "the funnel effect and the hole in the picture." Funnels and holes are endemic to canal paintings. Cezanne avoided funnels and holes by spanning "construction lines" and warm planes that pulled everything to the picture plane. I might be just "tasteless" (Loran's word) enough to not hide the funnels and holes as much. I like the front to back depth of a canal scene. A side view of the canal is not as interesting. Maybe I should publish the image upside-down. Then it wouldn't look like a frozen canal.

Field Painting

Field painting used to refer to Kenneth Noland and other artists who put color on large canvases. This is an 8x10 pastel of a field, which is next to a small model airplane field, off of the back trail of the park. It was a good day to walk back there since all the muddy trails are frozen.

Canal in Early Morning Sun

I don't have any remarks today. Need to move on to some household chores. This pastel in 11x14 on colourfix paper.

Just Starting

Today I only had time to make the preparatory drawing for a larger painting that I will complete tomorrow.

Stay on the Path

This view is a little further back from last evening's view. Did I tell you that the canal path is a wonderful place ? I wander up and down before cutting into the woods, but I don't wander very far when it comes to making pictures.

And Now for Something Completely Different

The sun was extraordinary this morning. Okay. Maybe I am exaggerating. But art is about exaggeration anyway. I mean it's colored stuff on a flat surface. I am trying not to overreact.

On the Back Trail

I have been taking the back trail again. It goes through an area that used to be a farmer's field many years ago. All the trees are small and the same height, more or less. Lots of tall grass on the sides. I sometimes come across a herd of deer, or a fox. Often wet. The mud freezes over at night. This pastel is 8x10 on uart paper.

Trees Next to the Continental Lane

I love the early morning sun in winter. The Continental Lane is where Washington's army hiked after crossing the Delaware on its way to Trenton. It's too narrow to "march" it.

Monochrome

Experimenting and exploring with black and white on Canson paper. These two are 8x10. The top image shows some farm machine abandoned in the woods, which used to be a field, many, many years ago.

Another artist who links landscape and the body is John Singer Sargent. He did many plein air paintings with people lounging or sleeping on the ground. See the book Sargent Abroad: Figures and Landscapes.

Woods in Winter II

This is a 12x12 pastel version of the previous drawing. A while back when I was looking at the landscapes of Gustav Klimt, it seems that about every landscape painting he did was square. They were large, but square.

On a related topic, recently I encountered the idea that landscape derives from the body, as in painting landscapes is a subconscious way of painting the body. A writer on Richard Diebenkorn suggested this about his paintings where you can actually see the transition. Klimt, if you are familiar with his non-landscape work, is another great example, though in his case he moves directly from the body to landscape. I found the idea again in another book, Painting as an Art by Richard Wollheim, in the section where he talks about the great Thomas Jones. I will have more to write about this in the future (I have to read the book!). Thomas Jones, by the way, was a genius for about a year or so, 1782-83, when he painted the most beautiful, small cityscapes of Rome, from his rooftop. He was one of the first plein air painters.

Don't ask me what painting winter landscapes has to do with the body.

Woods in Winter

I only have had enough time to make this preparatory drawing. Doing so does clear the mind as well as the path. It's 8x8 on Canson paper with black and white pastel, and charcoal.

Stream Bed in Winter

Up Luce Road past the farm you will find this stream bed, and there's still plenty of snow on the ground. It's the same view as the earlier black and white pastel but in a 12x12 format. I tried to be simple, or simpler, like the black and white.