Cuts Like a Knife

"Burnscape 10"
oil on panel, 2014
6" x 8" (15.24cm x 20.32cm)

This a recent painting from my Burnscape series which has been dormant for a while.

Burnscape Series - Living in Southern California and seeing so many wildfires it would be easy to focus on the destruction. My attraction for the burned landscape isn't for its destruction... but instead how it modifies the landscape, turning it into a charcoal terrain... it is rebirth, the way Mother Nature intended.
It is how She manages her jurisdiction, by controlling dense undergrowth. We usually get in the way.
Man has traditionally prevented fires, the growth becoming so thick that when fire does occur it is devastating. Another topic on the Man vs Nature theme.

This one is similar to my "Burnscape #4 (Charred Pine Stand)".
Trees are meant to survive natural wildfires where the brush is low to the ground, the fire sweeping through too quickly, and frequently enough, to wipe them out. These pines were burned too much to survive.
Here I included the dirt road which stands in stark contrast to the blackened soil and slices through the landscape like a knife.286

Click the Series-Burnscape label to see them all.

Boulder in Burnscape

"Burnscape #3"
watercolor, graphite on paper, 2007
9" x 12" (22.86cm x 30.84cm)

Here is an early watercolor from my Burnscape series.
I liked this view for the boulder and rock ledge in the foreground.
The white ash was put in more opaquely since there was no way to retrieve the white of the paper or effectively spare it out and build the forms of the hillside properly.
I do not mind this however. The ash sits on top and really pops out or forward, giving the scene greater depth, helps define the topography of the hill and gives it a cool blueish color against the warms of the hillside.

I could have tried a masking fluid but had none at the time and wanted to dive right into painting. In fact I never really use masking fluid anyway.
As other artists know, sometimes you need to strike while the iron is hot, jump right in when you have a sudden inspiration, no planning, just throw down paint and see what results from it.
Not all work out this way but when they do it can be satisfying.

I was happy with this one because I managed to achieve a certain richness of tone and color relatively effortlessly.
I did not have to fight the usual watercolor battles ending up with an overworked painting.173


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2 Watercolor Landscapes from Series

"Burnscape #9"
watercolor on paper, 2011
8" x 11" (20.32cm x 27.94cm)
For Sale at Daily Paintworks, CLICK HERE

"Oil Plant #10"
watercolor on paper, 2011
7" x 10" (17.78cm x 25.4cm)
For Sale at Daily Paintworks, CLICK HERE

Here are two recent watercolors done near the end of 2011.
I'm still searching for my own 'visual voice' in watercolor. Up until the last six months, I had not painted with it much the last couple of years, at least in a more traditional direct approach.

I have a love/hate relationship with (this kind of) watercolor. I do enjoy it's direct, fast dry properties over oils but often I'll lay down a color wash and later realize it's wrong and I'm stuck with it. Or an area that got too dark and I can't lighten it enough. That is tough to take since I've invested the time and may otherwise like the painting, but it is essentially ruined by that.
It takes a different kind of planning I know, but it generally goes against the way I prefer to work.

I also dislike the early stages, the first few steps or washes. Mine always look so ugly and I have to remind myself to push through these initial steps and not give up. I don't have that issue with oils.

In both of these my initial intent was to work looser. They ended up tighter but that's okay for now. It is going to take a conscious effort to get to that goal without loosing the substance and solidity I want. That said, I'm still happy with the way they turned out.162,163


*Update:
I found this quote from Jamie Wyeth that best sums up the last paragraph above. I'm happy that even the greats face(d) the same predicaments.


"Painting to me is constant searching.  I can see what I want, but I can’t get there, and yet you have to be open enough that if it goes another way, then let it go that way."         Jamie Wyeth.

Click 'LABELS" below to see more from each series
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Winter Tree & Alien Landscape

"Winter Tree"

"Burnscape"

"Winter Tree"

Pelikan brilliant brown ink on paper, 2011
6" x 8" (15.24cm x 20.32cm)
private collection


"Burnscape #7 (Hills, Path)"
Pelikan brilliant brown ink, Pelikan blk india ink on paper
Monte Blanc blk ink (looks green), 2011
6" x 8" (15.24cm x 20.32cm)
For Sale at Daily Paintworks, CLICK HERE


A single tree in winter. Sometimes a simple object can be seen for its design and that is enough. I love the branches of the tree reaching up for the sky, the purest form of the tree seen only when leafless.

Setting the trunk against a dark background emphasized its graceful, delicate spiral.

This ink drawing/painting is from my Burnscape series. Living in Southern California and seeing so many wildfires it would be easy to focus on the destruction. My attraction for the burned landscape isn’t for its destruction... but instead how it modifies the landscape, turning it into a charcoal terrain... it is rebirth, the stripping away of old layers for a fresh start, the way Mother Nature intended.

It is how She manages her jurisdiction, by controlling dense undergrowth. We usually get in the way.
Man has traditionally prevented fires, the growth becoming so thick that when fire does occur it is devastating. Another topic on the Man vs Nature theme.

This was a result of walking thru a burned area. When areas that are dense with dry brush and chaparral finally burn, the landscape is stripped bare. Its former identity completely lost. Taking on the quality of an alien landscape.
The formally vegetation softened hills become a jagged harsh environment.155,156


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Burnscape Series - Black and White

Ashen Landscape

Singed Tree

"Burnscape #6 (Ashen Landscape)"
watercolor, Pelikan blk india ink on paper, 2011
6" x8" (15.34cm x 20.32cm)
For Sale at Daily Paintworks, CLICK HERE


"Burnscape #5 (Singed Tree)"
watercolor, Pelikan blk india ink on paper, 2011
6" x8" (15.34cm x 20.32cm)
For Sale at Daily Paintworks, CLICK HERE


Burnscape Series - Living in Southern California and seeing so many wildfires it would be easy to focus on the destruction. My attraction for the burned landscape isn't for its destruction... but instead how it modifies the landscape, turning it into a charcoal terrain... it is rebirth, the way Mother Nature intended.
It is how She manages her jurisdiction, by controlling dense undergrowth. We usually get in the way.
Man has traditionally prevented fires, the growth becoming so thick that when fire does occur it is devastating. Another topic on the Man vs Nature theme.


TOP: Certain vegetation produces white ash resembling snow. I sometimes refer to these as California fallscapes, winterscapes or snowscapes. Also revealed in the barren terrain are these odd lunar like holes (animal burrows) usually concealed under the growth.


BOTTOM: Grassy vegetation turns a charcoal black. Fire passes some trees when the grass is low to the ground, the heat turning some leaves brown but leaving other parts untouched and green. For composition and design reasons I focused on the pathways left by the fire trucks.143,144


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Burnscapes - Man vs Nature

"Burnscape #4 (Charred Pine Stand)"

"Burnscape #8 (Charred Cactus)"

"Burnscape #4 (Charred Pine Stand)"
watercolor on paper, 2011
6" x 8" (15.24cm x 20.32cm)

"Burnscape #8 (Charred Cactus)"
watercolor, Pelikan india ink on paper, 2011
6" x 8" (15.24cm x 20.32cm)


Here are two recent watercolor/mixed media's from my Burnscape series. Both were at my solo show at the Randy Higbee Gallery. See previous posts.

Living in Southern California and seeing so many wildfires it would be easy to focus on the destruction. My attraction for the burned landscape isn't for its destruction... but instead how it modifies the landscape, turning it into a charcoal terrain... it is rebirth, the way Mother Nature intended.
It is how She manages her jurisdiction, by controlling dense undergrowth. We usually get in the way.
Man has traditionally prevented fires, the growth becoming so thick that when fire does occur it is devastating. Another topic on the Man vs Nature theme.

Top - #4 Trees are meant to survive fires where brush is low to the ground, the fire sweeping through too quickly (and frequently enough) to wipe them out. This pine stand didn't look like it would survive so to accentuate this I set its blackened silhouette against a background of unburned green.

Bottom - #8 As fire sweeps through dry brush, here... all that's left of a thicket, sometimes all that is left behind is high water content vegetation like cactus. What caught my attention was how the left side of the cactus clump seemed to have leaned away from the fire.137,138

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Snowscape

"Burnscape Color Study"   SOLD
watercolor/ink on paper, 2009
12" x 9" (30.48cm x 22.86cm)

This watercolor is from my Burnscape series. Living in southern California and seeing so many wildfires it would be easy to focus on the destruction. My attraction for the burned landscape isn't for it's destruction but instead how it modifies the landscape, turning it into a charcoal terrain... it is rebirth, the stripping away of old layers for a fresh start, the way Mother Nature intended.

The fascinating thing about some burned areas is the white ash from certain types of vegetation. It appears like snow. I sometimes refer to these as California fall or winterscapes. A bit eerie to walk through.

This was a color study done on a sheet of 12" x 9" paper, hence the color test splotches.
Experimenting here with finding that balance between the image looking like a snowscape initially then the realization that it is a burnscape.105

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Burnscape

"Burnscape w/ Staircase"   SOLD
watercolor on paper, 2009
9" x 12" (22.86cm x 30.48cm)


This watercolor is from my Burnscape series. Living in southern California and seeing so many wildfires it would be easy to focus on the destruction. My attraction for the burned landscape isn't for it's destruction but instead how it modifies the landscape, turning it into a charcoal terrain... it is rebirth, the stripping away of old layers for a fresh start, the way Mother Nature intended.

Here it exposes a long staircase previously hidden by years of growth, like a bony spine down the hillside. The only life is the green vegetation capping off the top of the hill, protecting the unseen home from being lost.103


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3 Birds

"Crow in Burnscape"

oil on panel, 2010

6" x 8" ( 15.24cm x 20.32cm)

private collection

"Male Chaffinch"

oil on panel, 2009

3.5" x 5" (8.89cm x 12.7cm)

private collection

"Caspian Tern"

Acrylic on illus. board, 2004

private collection

Here's 3 very different bird paintings done at different times. In this case they were not done as part of any series.

"Caspian Tern" was a commissioned painting from 2004. The tern, and if I'm not mistaken the recipient of the painting too, is frequently seen around the wetlands in Huntington Beach California. The wetlands have been going thru habitat restoration the last few years so as they expand so will the numbers of visiting wildlife, creating great opportunities for artists and photographers.

"Male Chaffinch" The owner of this painting is known for her referrals and networking skills, so from the expression "A little bird told me... " came this image. I did choose a male chaffinch over a female for the simple reason that in most cases in nature, it's the male who has the colorful markings and colorful is what her personality is all about.

"Crow in Burnscape" was a response to having walked thru a nature preserve following a wildfire. The birds and small wildlife I saw scurried about behaving rather nervously, while the crows seemed to be surprisingly at home. Crows, which are known for their intelligence must have realized that they were the only ones who now blended into their modified charcoal landscape.25,26,27

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