Process of New Series

Well I'm in an odd place in the series which I would almost call an addendum to the previous series. It would be adequate to use that term if it weren't for the fact that this series is taking off in a great departure from the previous and will stand on its own as a new series for 2013. Here is the strange place as I have in the past mentioned that there are points in the creative process where you feel like you are painting someone else's painting and it has always been an awkward and never a positive place to be which usually hints to the end of a great creative state. I am having the same feeling with this series only with an amazing positive twist.

Now I feel like I'm painting someone else's painting but instead of being awkward and tagging along I feel I am looking over an other's shoulder. You can call it anything you want but I consider it a divine intervention. I am painting from perspectives I have never even tried to attempt and for some reason-right now, it's working. As not to bore the reader I will explain three paintings that I just worked with today and try to not go into too much detail about any one.

First, I started painting today without a clear vision of what I wanted to accomplish, I just knew I wanted to paint and had a bit of time available for it. I started on a completely new painting called moon  flower. It is the view of a large tree from the bottom of its trunk. You are looking up into the moonlit sky and the peripheral images are faded and dark. Your attention is taken by the large, almost surreal moon flowers- I am right in the middle of detailed and accurate detail and soft dreamlike areas without much detail. I want the viewer to feel the dreamy affect of the background and the moon but still can ponder on the detail and accuracy of the moon flowers which glow in the moon filled sky. The view of the image is already awkward and you feel a bit off balance and I haven't even filled in all of the detail and added the visual cues to show you how high the tree is from your vision.

The next painting is a bridge-it's a simple bridge image and that is the beauty of it, it kind of painted itself, it is from a walk I took with my son. It is almost monochromatic blue, again detail in the extreme close up of the rocks and than it fades into  the distance of an overcast sky. It is a basic landscape but the light and shadows are extreme and atmospheric.

The last painting is a field, the same I have driven by for so many years and have captured in my memory and have attempted to capture in previous images. Now the image is all about detail and the light in the sky, a road comes up to meet you as you look through a deep mesh of wild sunflowers reflecting the last bit of light from the sunset that is disappearing in the pink and amber sky.

I am excited about the direction and the intensity of colors and lights balanced with a darkness that was previously common in older works. I also intend on working more extremely cold and detailed images of rivers in Yosemite and Montana so stay tuned. I look forward to the next series and look forward to your comments and critiques. Thanks for reading.