Contemplation

My cat Opal turned out to be a good model for this painting of quiet contemplation. (She is actually quite manic but I have calmed her down here). As I mentioned in the previous post I had difficulty painting only the dormant hydrangea and hibiscus plants while my garden is actually erupting with bulbs and fat furry blossom buds. It is such an early spring here but I wanted this painting to be about that earlier time of year when perennials and shrubs are dormant, invisible or apparently dead. There is such peace in dormancy. I have painted that feeling I get when I watch the sun set and I feel completely alone with the sky. I am not achieving anything tangible. I am not engaging or performing or displaying myself in any way. I feel peaceful and dormant but so happy.


I was going to call this painting "Sweet Silent Thought" after Shakespeare's Sonnet number 30 but I don't like how he says that in times of quiet contemplation he realizes that his life has sucked and only love can rescue him from his misery. My painting is much more positive than that.

When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
I summon up remembrance of things past,
I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,
And with old woes new wail my dear time's waste:
Then can I drown an eye, unused to flow,
For precious friends hid in death's dateless night,
And weep afresh love's long since cancell'd woe,
And moan the expense of many a vanish'd sight:
Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,
And heavily from woe to woe tell o'er
The sad account of fore-bemoaned moan,
Which I new pay as if not paid before.
But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,
All losses are restored and sorrows end.

Sorry William. I will call it something else...but what?

Mouse or Cat

This painting, barely started, is only 12 inches wide. A much smaller scale than my last four foot winter scene. My garden is full of dead plants that have such wonderful shapes and textures like this hydrangea and I want to capture some of them even though I am being tempted by new spring flowers already. The helebores, snowdrops and daphnes are blooming but I will try not to be distracted until this new one is finished.


I put a little mouse watching the sunset but I think I might change her to a cat, using Opal as my model. I find it very hard to imagine the anatomy of an animal and get more satisfying results working from observation.




Spring is strangely early this year. It's nice but odd.

Finished

I added some shadows to the snow which was fun. I will hang this painting at Finch and Sparrow in Fremont if you would like to visit it. (or buy it!)

Almost Finished

It's almost finished. I still need to add some snowberry leaves and some more dogwood twigs.


I usually wait for my last painting day to add the whiskers but couldn't resist this time. So much fun to put in the finishing touches. The snowy ground was also nice to paint, especially since we haven't had a flake here this winter. I worked from photos I took last winter.

I hope to finish up today but I will be at the Garden Show this afternoon so I'd better get up to the studio this morning.

Introducing Some Red

There were such wonderful and thoughtful comments after my last post that I have decided to continue the discussion about this painting. Thank you if you left a comment. I love having other people's opinions, even when I choose to ignore them! It seems most of you were generously encouraging me to include what ever plants and animal combinations are appropriate to my artistic vision. But I am leaning more toward science in this one and have added some red twig Dogwood and some Oregon grape. Both are native to this area, though whether or not they would ever be found in a grouping like this I will not worry about.





I didn't mention that this painting is four feet wide so there is lots of room to play with. I want a dramatic effect as though we have come across this hare in a sunny clearing, with the foreground in shadow. This is causing me such problems and my always helpful family keep pointing out that the snow in shadow looks more like dryer lint than snow.



And this grouping of snow covered berries in shadow looks more like a manatee than anything else! Clearly I need to get back into the studio and work on this.



I am really enjoying the way the edge of the Oregon Grape leaf forms a zig zag. I could never think these things up. Nature amazes me as always!

A Question

This unfinished painting of a snowshoe hare in a winter landscape has crystallized a question that has been looming in my work as, over the past few years, my paintings have become more realistic and less surrealistic. I used to invent plants and creatures and set them in imagined spaces but now I am happier painting "real" plants and animals copied accurately from nature.

But the accurate depiction of a plants and animals is still not the purpose of my work - it is just the language I use to tell the story. The animals represent me, or you the viewer, surrounded by a world of emotion. For this reason, I do not consider myself a "wildlife artist" or a "botanical artist". I suppose I am anthropomorphising the world, even though I don't dress my animals in cute clothing and give them cell phones and cars. I paint, not so much the world around me, as the world inside me.

I use nature as my language and she kindly provides me with plants and animals more fantastic than anything my imagination can conjure up. I also feel so humbled by the world around me that copying nature as accurately as I can has deep meaning for me. It now feels arrogant to try to invent anything to rival what nature has developed over the Milena. So I have reached a place where the plants and animals are as real as I can make them.

But how far should this go? In this painting I have invented a snowy landscape full of snowberries. This part is scientifically possible. Snowberries, snowshoe hares and snow can all be found together in nature. But now I find I want to introduce some color to this painting and have been tempted to paint one of those beautiful Yuletide camellias with the deep red flowers which would turn my nice sciencey landscape into something imaginary. Should I honour nature by assembling only the elements that she herself has orchestrated? Or should I clumsily throw in all sorts of plants that showshoe hares would never encounter in the wild? Would this be sloppy? Arrogant? I want to be sensitive to my environment. It feels right to honour the natural world and, as I write this, I feel myself leaning toward science and away from fantasy. Surely I can still tell the stories I want without messing around with the natural world.

I welcome any opinions on this "nature" vs "nurture" question. Really it is "reality" vs "fantasy". Robert Bateman vs Mark Ryden. Ouch my brain. Is it ok if I still indulge in a few flying weasels when the need arises?


Robert Bateman


Mark Ryden

Sunrise

I am thinking about Haiti of course. The sunrise yesterday lifted my spirits a little. I took this one facing east.


And this one facing west. I have never seen the water so pink. The beauty was breathtaking but also vaguely unsettling.

After the Storm

I love the drama of stormy weather. My cosy studio or my cosy coat and boots keep me safe from any real danger and discomfort. I suppose that is the difference between something thrilling and something truly frightening. I feel the same way about my emotional life. Usually I stay safe and cosy but sometimes I venture out into the big, beautiful, thrilling world to find adventures that make my heart beat faster.




This painting shows the snowberries that decorate Seattle in the darkness of winter and the beauty berries (calliparpa) that I love so much this time of year. It is oil on panel and measures 11'x14".

Snowshoe Hare

I have painted snowshoe hares before but always in their winter white coats. This one is still wearing her brown summer fur and is looking at the snowberries as if wondering when she should change her own color.

I love these fluffy characterful animals and find them even more interesting now that I am aware of how much they are affected by climate change. I recently read an article that described how some hares are changing their fur color to white in the winter even though their habitat doesn't become snowy any more. This leaves them uncamouflaged and even more vulnerable to predation. Sorry to describe something so sad here on the blog.

A funny story about this little painting might cheer us up. When it was freshly wet I brought it down to the house to prop it on the fireplace mantel to dry over night. As I was doing this is slipped out of my hand and landed face down on the hearth rug, where the cats sleep. When I picked it up it was so covered with cat fur that I spent half an hour with a scalple picking the hairs off my hare. Yes I know I should vacuum more often but there are so many paintings that I want to make and I hate vacuuming, don't you?

This little study is oil on canvas and measures 8"x10". If you visit the article about climate change here you can see the photograph that inspired this painting.

A New Year's Pudu

I made this little painting as a Christmas present for my friend who shares my love of Pudus - the smallest deer in the world. The black background was inspired by a show of seventeenth century Dutch paintings I saw in Vancouver last month. This painting looks dramatic but is only 5x7 inches.


I don't know who took this picture but the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle had a baby pudu a while ago so maybe this picture is from there. Even if you don't like cute animals (really?) this baby has to make you say "aaawww". The mother is less than two feet tall.

Happy Solstice

Huckleberry looked so wonderful and black yesterday on the darkest day of the year. Now it is the Solstice we can look to the sky again for warmth and light. Or, on dark rainy days like this we can at least eat sun-shaped traditional Scottish solstice shortbreads.

Huckleberry Shows How It's Done

After posting about Opal not camouflaging herself very well this morning, I found Huckleberry sleeping on my fake fur coat. He is so competetive.

Hiding

If Christmas preparations are feeling hectic why not take a moment to hide away somewhere quiet? I spent the afternoon in the studio yesterday finishing this painting. It was so cosy and peaceful. I know just how Opal feels hiding away in the grass, though she isn't as well camouflaged as she thinks she is!

The painting is oil on birch panel and measures 12"x12".

Sweater Weather

I have been thinking about the sweater trees that I posted last month. They look a lot like Liz Tran's paintings which I saw recently at Monarch Gallery in Seattle. (Thanks Susan Melrath for pointing this out.)

Last night Isobel and I visited the Seattle Art Museum and saw the wonderful Nick Cave sculptures/costumes called Soundsuits.




(These images come from the Jack Shainman Gallery web site.)

There is a You Tube link to a film about Nick Cave's work here. The sweater soundsuits appear at about three and a half minutes.

Stay warm everyone and top up your bird feeders with food and hot water. Those little guys can't wear sweaters.

Wow Cold

Does the record breaking cold this week mean that I'll have to replace my rosemary plants again in the spring. Grrr. Brrr. The frost is pretty though, and the sky is so clear that I feel energized.

The Sky is Round Them Still

The Autumn (Elizabeth Barrett Browning)

Go, sit upon the lofty hill,
And turn your eyes around,
Where waving woods and waters wild
Do hymn an autumn sound.
The summer sun is faint on them -
The summer flowers depart -
Sit still - as all transform'd to stone,
Except your musing heart.

How there you sat in summer-time,
May yet be in your mind;
And how you heard the green woods sing
Beneath the freshening wind.
Though the same wind now blows around,
You would its blast recall;
For every breath that stirs the trees,
Doth cause a leaf to fall.

Oh! like that wind, is all the mirth
That flesh and dust impart:
We cannot bear its visitings,
When change is on the heart.
Gay words and jests may make us smile,
When Sorrow is asleep;
But other things must make us smile,
When Sorrow bids us weep!

The dearest hands that clasp our hands, -
Their presence may be o'er;
The dearest voice that meets our ear,
That tone may come no more!
Youth fades; and then, the joys of youth,
Which once refresh'd our mind,
Shall come - as, on those sighing woods,
The chilling autumn wind.

Hear not the wind - view not the woods;
Look out o'er vale and hill -
In spring, the sky encircled them -
The sky is round them still.
Come autumn's scathe - come winter's cold -
Come change - and human fate!
Whatever prospect Heaven doth bound,
Can ne'er be desolate.


This painting is part of a series of the seasons painted for my friend Nina. It is oil on panel and measures 9"x12". You can see the summer painting here. And the winter painting here.

Going Nutty (and maybe barking mad)

I looked around the neighbourhood for autumn leaves and nuts. These sycamore trees are such fun with their pom poms.


Their bark looks just like dried mud.


I brought home some treasures for my studio collection - all picked up off the ground.


Bright pink acorns.


Glossy and prickly chestnuts.


A handful of chestnut shells looks a lot like...


...baby hedgehogs.
(This picture is making the rounds of the internet and I don't know who took it. Sadly this is not my hand holding baby hedgehogs.)