If this is your first visit to my blog, you may want to begin reading the blog post titled " A BRIEF INTRO" and then follow with subsequent postings.Long before the paint hits the canvas, an idea or concept must take hold of me. It's really hard to explain how this happens or what it feels like but, I will try. It's almost like a fifth sense; a glimpse into the future that leaves a deep seated impression. It's almost like a taste in your mouth, a feeling on which, for the duration of the painting, I must maintain an unclouded hold. It's something akin to the way a writer surrenders control of the telling of the story to the characters which inhabit the book. You have to be the vehicle for the painting to paint itself.
To begin, I have always felt that the landscape that an artist is usually inspired by is the landscape of their youth. I grew on the northern coast. I identified with the ocean, its marshes, its bridges, its steep craggy cliffs, and the sweeping vistas it afforded. There were many old farmsteads on austere hills and mysterious forests. More importantly, this area gave me that feeling of "oldness"; of being tied to a long ago past. When I moved to Atlanta, everything seemed "newish". I did not get that tie to the past. Also, although Atlanta is in a comparatively healthy ecosystem, this thriving temperate forest did not allow for much of a vista. I had a teacher who once described the landscape here as if you were "living in an egg". The green around you is so all encompassing, it's rare to look up to a spacious sky or out to an expanse of land, due to the hills and the towering greenery. Perhaps the reason for so many great southern writers is that the landscape forces them to become introspective, to examine what is close because they cannot examine what is far.
Although I was pleased with my landscape painting, for the most part I did not really identify with the subject matter. Still, I could not stop myself from painting it because, I am so drawn to nature. It's just so beautiful. I am hopelessly in love with it.
So, that's the back story, and a photo of where I came upon my "idea" which, as you now know, was more that just an idea.
To begin, I have always felt that the landscape that an artist is usually inspired by is the landscape of their youth. I grew on the northern coast. I identified with the ocean, its marshes, its bridges, its steep craggy cliffs, and the sweeping vistas it afforded. There were many old farmsteads on austere hills and mysterious forests. More importantly, this area gave me that feeling of "oldness"; of being tied to a long ago past. When I moved to Atlanta, everything seemed "newish". I did not get that tie to the past. Also, although Atlanta is in a comparatively healthy ecosystem, this thriving temperate forest did not allow for much of a vista. I had a teacher who once described the landscape here as if you were "living in an egg". The green around you is so all encompassing, it's rare to look up to a spacious sky or out to an expanse of land, due to the hills and the towering greenery. Perhaps the reason for so many great southern writers is that the landscape forces them to become introspective, to examine what is close because they cannot examine what is far.
Although I was pleased with my landscape painting, for the most part I did not really identify with the subject matter. Still, I could not stop myself from painting it because, I am so drawn to nature. It's just so beautiful. I am hopelessly in love with it.
So, that's the back story, and a photo of where I came upon my "idea" which, as you now know, was more that just an idea.
Wow I had the same reaction when I moved to Atlanta. Where's the old stuff? Wasn't happy til I saw the Goat Farm.
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