As an artist, I believe I have a unique perspective and a unique voice, but of course, there are influences. Stylistically I am the lovechild of Ansel Adams and Georgia O’Keeffe, drawn to jagged mountain peaks, but painting them in bright colors with bold brushstrokes, my training with watercolors readily apparent in my best work in acrylics.
My first expression of this style was inspired by Ms. O’Keeffe’s Red Tree, Yellow Sky, which I’d seen years ago on a visit to Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts.
I’d been wandering somewhat aimlessly around the galleries and when this caught my eye, it had me rooted to the spot for several minutes, staring. I can’t even say what it is, just that this painting speaks to me so much I almost feel like I painted it myself.
I came back to this image a few years later when painting my beloved Wilson Peak, a mountain that speaks to me so much it almost feels like a direct extension of my soul. I wanted an image of it that was mine, painted from a photograph I’d taken, reflecting my style and my artistic sensibilities. And my love of bright, contrasting colors. The final result: Yellow Sky, Red Mountain.
I painted this in the summer of 2006 in my kitchen in Providence, Rhode Island, in the middle of a relentless heat wave, an electrical storm raging outside, O.A.R.’s “Crazy Game of Poker” playing in my ears: Just one answer, gotta throw it all down and kiss it goodbye. I was in the midst of a personal revolution, about to throw away a stable life–a job, a lease–pack everything in my car and head west to Los Angeles. I poured all of myself–my fears, my hopes, my dreams–into this painting.
Right now it is hanging over my writing desk in my West Hollywood apartment, half a block below Sunset. I’m staring at it as I type this.
That same summer, I had an idea for another painting, inspired by an Ansel Adams photograph in a calendar I was using. The photograph is of Big Bird Peak in Dead Man Canyon, in California’s Kings Canyon National Park, taken circa 1932. And I just thought it was stunning.
And of course I wanted to paint it. In green and purple. I even sat one warm evening on the porch of my house and sketched out an outline.
I even painted the sky, green and textured and cloudless. And then I moved to Los Angeles, and for some reason I can’t quite remember, I left it languishing at my parents’ house in Connecticut, perhaps worried that it wouldn’t fit in my overstuffed car.
When I went back to Connecticut in March, three months ago, I found myself in the playroom over the garage, digging for relics from my past, and in the far corner, I found this canvas, outlined, green sky painted, begging to be finished.
And so I dusted it off, packed it in the bottom of my suitcase (after swapping out for a bigger one, but there are plenty of suitcases also languishing in my parents’ playroom), and brought it back to Los Angeles. And last night, I finally finished it.
That’s not the finished product. I just love pictures like this, watching a painting emerge from a blank canvas as if it was always there and you’re just uncovering it, erasing the white film that was obscuring the image. And then when you’re done removing that film, you’re left with something like this:
The painting is now for sale on Etsy, and while it will be hard to part with, I expect to be painting more pieces in a similar style. I feel like I’ve finally found my voice, my own unique breed of art, and it’s something I want to continue to explore and express.
Tags: Ansel Adams, art, Background, Big Bird Peak, color, Georgia O'Keeffe, Inspiration, mountains, painting, personal, Providence, Wilson Peak
June 17, 2009 at 11:31 am |
Your talent amazes me!