From my Notebooks: ON TREES

Trees are infinitely varied in their texture, species, proportions, and moods.  There are different schools of thought when it comes to handling trees in the landscape.  Modern painters sometimes have a tendency to paint trees that are flimsy in comparison to their predecessors.  In their search for the dappling light and shimmer of life in the leaves they forget to appreciate the massive solidity of the oak tree in contrast to the wispy transience of the river birch or the willow.   There is a careful line to walk in painting trees.  They must have all of their gigantic, silent, full grown glory and yet all the pulsing life of cyclical growth that they see day in and day out season after season bare against the wind and elements.   It is not such an easy thing to capture; trees are soft and pliable out at the tips where they flutter and flip their leaves in the wind, and yet hard and rough in their boughs and trunk. There are many different things to say about one tree, let alone a hillside of them.  Painting here in Western North Carolina, trees are very often the chief subject.  Even if you set up to paint the mountain you must deal somehow with the tree masses that live on them and that likely crowd your easel.  When I went to the Highlands of Scotland to paint, I was visually shocked by the absence of trees on the jagged crags and hillocks. Having grown so accustomed to their presence here I was at a loss with out them. What a sign of how the English so used up the country! And isn't it interesting that people from the lowlands of the Carolinas and surrounding states flock to the Mountains for the peace and quiet of living on these forested hills.

Thank God for all of Nature, and today especially for trees!  Thanks for reading and sharing these ideas with anyone you like.  If this inspires any new ideas on Nature and Trees in your mind please let me know what you are thinking.  


 

 











ODE TO REMBRANDT'S ETCHINGS....

I don't do etchings yet, but some of my recent pen and ink drawings may eventually nudge me in that direction.  Pen and Ink doesn't have the exact same quality as etching, but it is a great place to start for experimentation, working out ideas, and working to capture the essence of a subject.   Ink drawings can go a long way toward enlightening the artist about tree forms and values that might otherwise be overlooked when working solely in color.  Ink drawings also tend to have their own charm and mystery quite unlike other kinds of drawing in that the artist is limited in the number of ways to explain what he is seeing.  Hatching, crosshatching, subtle whispering lines, and staccato marks all do their part to say what is needed. 

REFLECTIONS...

 Water is one of the most illusive and mysterious elements in outdoor painting.  It is interesting to consider how the water in the air changes the way we see everything.  On a misty summer morning many trees that are familiar to us may seem larger, farther away or strangely foreboding. But on a cool fall morning, all the water may be less hanging in the air and more in the streams and clouds, and everything is illuminated to a crisp.  Water in mass is particularly challenging, and yet it is perfect at giving trees that might be less interesting without it a peculiar dignity and voluminous mass.  When you start to consider the unifying element of water in a landscape you begin to gain an even greater appreciation for how Nature works.  The clouds hover over the waters of the earth and through their cycling all life lives in between.  So when painting a copse of tree hanging over a pond, it is not merely the copse you are aiming for but to share a minute glimpse of the whole thing.  That particular tree over that particular pond tells many tales.  To see more paintings with water check out some newly added paintings in the Western North Carolina file on my website www.rebeccanking.com.  Go to "Paintings and Drawings" and "Western North Carolina" to see more.

On the Chopping Block
4x12 Oil on Gessoed Board
$980                                   
                                                   

...From my Notebooks: ON MAKING PAINTINGS...

Nature is simply too complex to capture in one artistic effort.  The variation of mood, light, atmosphere, and color are enough to silent the proud and inspire the meek.  Sentimentality makes Nature cheap, and yet devoid of feeling and emotive energies it is easy for the artist to destory what he means to caress.  I have done my fair share of slaying.  I suppose temperance comes with age, and what one hopes for is the sparkle that inspired his first efforts to mature in volumes of visual depth, like a full bodied wine drunk at just the right time.  Wisdom gets decanted from Humility, and in the end your just glad to see all that is.

Hanging There 8x10
Oil on Linen on Board $895



DRAWINGS on View at 16 PATTON, Asheville, NC
RECEPTION SATURDAY NIGHT! 6-9
                                                                                                                                          
 Need more scratch, scrape, and scribble in your life?  Come out 16 Patton on Saturday night to see the drawings that will be on view featuring artists from 16 Patton and the work of guest artists from the Fine Arts League of the Carolinas, including me!  Great drawings are serious efforts at capturing a whole lot with nothing more than a burnt willow vine, a stick of graphite or fluid from a bottle.   Most art has something to do with the mystery of illusion, but the best drawings have a special pass to the sublime.

                                                                                                           Porch
                                                                                            Pen and Ink 5x7
                                                                                                            $275

Setting to work on a picture in the morning before it gets to hot, or the bothers of the day start to catch up with you is like trying to get really quiet.  You may have trucks and cars swinging past or the occasional passerby with comments and questions.  But essentially when you set up to paint, you are setting off alone on a journey that no one else will take in just that same way ever again. 

What will the picture be made of?  What sort of stuff in it will really stand up to the scrutiny of that enigmatic viewer who you may or may not have the pleasure of ever speaking to.  Just what does that person need to know about what you are looking at.  It must be something significant.  Of course not every painting we do will whisper significance to that ideal viewer but that is a good goal; a good aim that keeps you from making it a game to see how many paintings you can make in how sort a time.  To paint something with real weight you have to really grasp at the subject, grab it around the middle and embrace it to see just what its made of.  One glance won't do, Fifty aren't enough either.  You've got to really look, for a good long while, puzzle out the composition, study the value relationships, and the edges, and then the color.  There is nothing quite as delighfully confounding as a really interesting subject.  Sometimes I think I could look for an age.