Redtree Times

Natural Throne– Coming to Principle Gallery

The greatest monarch on the proudest throne is obliged to sit upon his own arse.

–Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard’s Almanack

This is another new painting, Natural Throne, that is coming to the Principle Gallery with me on Saturday, when I will be giving a Gallery Talk there. 

This is a small piece, coming in at 5″ by 7″ on panel, but it has a bigger feel in person. I think some of it comes from its surface appearance. It is painted with inks on a panel with a gesso surface that is very smooth. When finished off with a final layer of varnish, it has the look of glass or enamel, its surface giving it a glow. Quite striking, it feels as much like an artifact, an object, as it does a piece of art. 

But one shouldn’t let the surface appearance discount the painting itself. I believe it would hold up well whatever surface was under it.

I call this piece Natural Throne partly from an idea of personal sovereignty that lingers in my mind. This is not to be confused with sovereign citizenship, that fringe movement that has existed for a long time where people believe they are beyond the rules and regulations and obligations of the country in which they exist. No, this is more about people feeling small and having little control or say-so in their life or the world.  It’s about finding a place, a little space of their own, and seeing as their private kingdom, even if only in their minds.

I see this painting in this way because, as I have mentioned here before, this is one of those pieces that I see being as much as a royal portrait as it is a landscape. In these pieces, I often see the Red Tree as the crowned head with the mound on which it rests serving as a colorful robe of state and its kingdom spreading out behind it.

I definitely got that feel here.

Of course, you might not see it that way. And, as always, that is as it should be. I am just giving my view of it as I sit here this morning on my regal arse in my little kingdom in the woods.

Okay, I have to get to work. There are decrees to be issued, cat boxes to be cleaned and garbage to be gathered. Monday is the day for the royal garbage pickup here in the realm.

Ah, the life of a king…