A documentary on the progress of a layer of clay descending a dune
Oil on maple, 24 x 18 inches
For more than a decade, we have been watching a layer of clay slowly descending a slope of the Empire Bluff. Usually, the ‘necklace’ stands out as a vegetation-free band. But on a winter day, it was nicely accentuated by snow.
I have given up walking around this aspect of the bluff out of concern that there suddenly could be a slide of clay. Two decades ago, the north-western most tip of the dunes at Glenhaven caved in after I walked there with my dog. Since then, I have grown to respect the forces of nature here.
Really interesting technique, Birgit. I admire it but am not quite sure I understand it entirely yet.
The trees in the foreground are like the trees in the first photo you posted just below!
They also have a fanciful resemblance to asparagus. Perfect for this time of year.
Birgit,
I like your framing trees here. Were you thinking of vertical lines as we discussed once before? What’s interesting here in terms of composition is that they play off diagonal lines, rather than horizontal ones. The lichen and grasses keep the geometry from being too strong.
Tree,
Asparagus tree! Perfect comparison. After upgrading my Mac Ox, see below, I compared the image on A&P to the original painting back at home and found the web image was overexposed. Therefore, I opened the photo again as raw file format and processed it newly. Perhaps, the pink snow in front is a little too mute now but the color of the clay, trees and overall reduced brightness is better than it was before.
Choosing the earlier overexposed image had to do with yesterday morning’s poor performance of my lap top. In the afternoon, I finally upgrade to Mac OS X to Snow Leopard and, surprisingly, the upgrade improved the performance of the monitor. With the old operating system, the images were darker and grayish but now they are lighter and brighter. I was surprised because I had attributed the poor performance of the laptop monitor to hardware, not to software.
With respect to the lichen, I will study them when I go back up north in a month. The lichen in this painting received the least loving care of all the aspects of the picture. I wanted to put in green to complement the red clay and yellow, because I love yellow. But it was done a little too quickly because I was eager to start and finish Listening II, see next installment, before tomorrow when I have to finish this month’s painting.
Steve,
So far, I have been choosing my pictures by gut feeling. Perhaps, as I get more experienced, I will learn to choose my composition based on what I have learned.
I am glad that you verbalized what works with the geometry: the vertical lines “play off diagonal lines, rather than horizontal ones”. Something to remember.
Birgit:
Thinking about discreet objects juxtaposed. The sky, the dune, the wedge of water, the foreground of what I take for snow, the trees and bushes, are all separate entities that you are stitching together. Working in this manner – to me – is something of the path less traveled, in the sense that it is not the easiest thing to do. One item that you might want to consider is coloration: the lake seems a bit artificially blue.
Another element that I believe I’m seeing is a detailed concentration upon the things you like the most. The Empire bluff receives a lot of loving attention in the painting as it does in your narrative. Second to that is the foreground with the vertical trunks and a distant third is the water and the sky which come across to me as more indicated than integrated. Please don’t take this a criticism as much as it is an inventory of challenges. From a painting perspective those dunes are a Bear.
By the way, is anybody else working on this motif?
Jay, honestly, I am depending on your critiques (which I don’t take as criticisms). I hope that you will not tire of mentoring me.
About ‘stitching’ together, I am reminded of Karl telling me that it is easy to put in the details but it is difficult is to finally create harmony among all the components.
The water will be made less blue. About the sky, I practised a great deal to lessen the transitions between the different shades of blue. My earlier skies lacked that. I had hoped that the pink cloud would tie in the snow below.
Living with the picture for a while might help me figuring out how to pull the detail better together or, alternatively, make them more alienating.