a multi-disciplinary dialog
oil on maple panel, 40 cm x 50 cm
Improvised from a photograph this winter taken near Otter Creek in the Sleeping Bear Dunes.
Colors were mixed from Ultramarine blue, Manganese violet, Turner yellow, Chinese Lake, white and black. None of the mixtures displayed even the slighted hint of green.
Having gained some experience with choosing and mixing pigments, I consider, that a next, fruitful step in learning to be a better painter will be to follow Cennini’s advice and practice drawing – daily.
Finely ground black sand overlies coarser light sand at a particular location along the shore of Lake Michigan.
Rough surf paints in black sand.
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oil on a maple, 12 x 12 inches
A meditating duck in the Banter Lake outside Liselotte’s cabin in Wilhelmshaven.
The color that I chose for painting water in Northern Germany differs from my usual Lake Michigan color mix. Today, it consists of Ultramarine Blue, Dioxane violet, Titanium White and Zinc White.
I paint water, June paints the desert. Do you also have a proclivity for a particular motif or theme?
I guess it’s natural for a photographer working in black and white to notice where things fall on the continuum between the two. Though all shades of gray are lovable, it’s more the extremes that seem to win my heart. It’s the attraction of pure yin and yang. It’s therefore a special delight when winter brings a reversal of this duality in one of my favorite subjects, namely streams and their ilk. Once there’s snow on the ground and ice forming on the bank, the water itself turns dark, just the opposite of the typical summer pattern of white water amid dark rocks or ground. Since a trip a couple months back along a local stream after the first big snowfall, I’ve been contemplating a series I tentatively called Black water. The early images didn’t seem especially promising, but I never found time to take a good crack at it.
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Wedded to watery motifs, fond of reflection, and taking advantage of a brilliant, calm day in the dunes of Northern Michigan, motifs as the following were collected:
While reworking and sequencing my Winter Water project, I realized that, for a photographer as well as a physicist, snow, ice, and liquid are very distinct states of water, with distinct texture, tone, and shape. Perhaps because those photographs had no sky, I managed to completely forget about the vaporous state. Last Monday, however, I was vividly reminded of that glorious phase while biking through Yellowstone. Roads were clear but cars not yet allowed, so I had it almost to myself: only a half dozen other bikers all day, and a few service vehicles per hour. Fortunately I had a late start, so by the time I reached the Lower Falls it was well on in the afternoon. The westerly light left the falling water in shade while illuminating the mist.
Natural black and white minimalism as well. To a certain extent, photographers choose (or are chosen by) their style when they choose their subject. Of course, the way of framing the subject plays an essential role. But in landscape photographs larger than minute details, it’s hard to find an uncluttered field of view. Winter simplifies.
Since I seem to have a natural inclination toward abstraction, you can well imagine I was delighted to find these snow forms in the wandering branches where the young Gallatin River is still figuring out where it belongs. I was also delighted to be on a pair of broad back country skis, a rental substitute for my 15-year old kit that had finally broken multiple places in every component, to the point it really was not usable even by an anti-gear guy like myself. The new skis allowed me to move easily along and among these streams, despite the deep, soft snow. I would gladly have spent all day there, had I been free.