Redtree Times

I am calling this painting Valley Bountiful.  It’s a new 30″ by 30″ canvas that is a continuance of a recent group of work that focuses on the patterned fields and tree groupings that make up the foreground, all feeding to the central figure of the Red Tree. 

I’m really enjoying this recent streak of work.  There’s a sense of fullness, or completeness, in these pieces that really gratifies me.  I see this in the density of the color,  in the depth of the picture plane into which the scene pushes and in the way the fields comes together.

  I may not be able to explain what I fully mean by the word fullness here.  Maybe it feels as though there is a sense of self-containment in the piece, an autonomy that allows the painting to live fully on its own in its own self-described world.  I have always described a piece as being successful if it takes on a life of its own, to have their own voice and vocabulary and existing in their own time and place.  These pieces seem to fully embody this.  They seem fully alive, dwelling completely in their own idealized world.

All that I can ask.

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Another new black and white, or gray, piece, this one an image of about 7″ by 11″.  I call this painting Fork because of the repetitive form of the fork seen in the path as it splits and in the the tree as it reaches upward.

The sun here is oversized, something I have often employed in my work, to create a dramatic visual quality, a sense of immediacy in the moment.  As though it is a guide of sorts, hovering above and reminding the traveler that every decision, small or large, takes them in a new direction, some far afield from where they currently stand.  The sun is not menacing in this position that it maintains.  No, it’s immediacy is more of an urging to see the significance of the ordinary, the importance of seemingly small decisions and thoughts.

Recognize where you are and what is before you, in both a physical and spiritual sense.  The tree here represents the spiritual or mental aspect of this.  Just as the traveler comes to a fork and takes one of the paths which determines what they will see and experience, we make judgments each day, on nearly everything, which shapes how we view everything that we see and experience.

As I always say, this is only how I see this piece.  You may not see it that way.  You may see something completely different or nothing at all but a simple composition.  All are valid.  Art often falls in that gray area.

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This is a new painting that is a variation of the new work I showed here last week.  If you read yesterday’s post you’ll probably recognize the the look and feel of this piece as being the antithesis to the feelings I was experiencing myself and seeing in the darker work of Grosz.  This is a painting that is forward looking and filled with positivism.  Oh, it has dark edges and traces of something ominous lurking beneath the surface of the colors but it takes an optimistic, almost triumphant stance.

This is a larger painting, 24″ high by 48″ wide, and just glows in the studio amid the other strongly colored work around it.  The color is vibrant and bold and decisive.  It puts itself forward and demands that you look at it whether you like it or not.  And I think this is a piece with which the viewer will make that decision very quickly.  I don’t think there’s a lot of middle ground here.  It is demanding and not subtle, not for those who seek something that blends into its surroundings. 

But it is in the same vein as the bulk of my work.  Despite its bold feel, it is filled with quiet and space.  The quiet is a bit different, like an exultant outward quiet rather than an introverted, examining quiet.  I don’t know if there is actually such a difference in magnitude of quiets but if there is, this painting is of the more vibrant, even loud,  sort of quiet.

I also see this as being very empowered.  The central figure of the red tree is beneath a large sky and a vast open landscape but doesn’t seem overpowered or overwhelmed by its place in this scenario.  It seems to be larger than life and defiant of the clouds above, pushing them away to claim its view of the sky.  In fact, I call this painting Push Away the Clouds. 

As my words attest, I feel pretty strongly about this piece.  Whether others will see it in the same way is beyond my control so I’m not worrying about it at the moment.  For now, I’m using it to pushing away my own clouds.

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I have been pretty busy at the easel lately.  I’ve been getting into a decent rhythm where one thing quickly leads to another, one creative spark jumping up toward the next tree.  This is the result of one of these wildfires.

Measuring 24″ by 24″ on canvas, this new painting has been a pretty vibrant addition to the studio.  It has excited me visually with its vibrancy of color and the massing of the clouds in the sky creates a different atmosphere than my often clear and empty skies.   It just seems brighter and more optimistic in nature, more extroverted.  While the red tree is still the central figure and stands alone and different, I don’t get the sense that there is exclusion here.  Rather I sense inclusion, a feeling of connection to the world around it with the clouds being almost celebratory above and the surrounding trees willing witnesses.  Jubilation is word that comes to mind for me.  A sense of joy in just being alive.

This piece has a very intoxicating quality in the studio.  I am constantly pulled to it which both excites me and makes me wary, suspicious of my own initial strong  response to the work.  I have been doggedly trying to find fault in it to give me a reason to curtail this excitement in case it is a mere episode of color intoxication, where I get somewhat mesmerized by the colors I am working with and can’t objectively see the work in its entirety. 

But this work seems to fit, seems to belong in the continuum of my work.  There is part of me that is pushing towards rushing into a series of this work while part of me is telling me to slow down and give it time.  But the rushed part is winning, seeing new takes and twists in this work with which  it’s itching to forge ahead.  I’m already well into another of this series. 

Well, maybe a series.  Only time will tell.  But for the time being, I’m drunkenly enjoying this painting.

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