9×12 in. mixed media. From time to time I try to capture the aftermath or the beginning of a forest fire. I think it is because my sister works for the forest service in the western United States. Her dept. works on supplying the monies and resources so these brave people can work on prevention and fighting the fires when needed. Dauntless task, especially after the fire season we are having this year. My artistic visions fall more into the areas after the fires, and I try to create a feel of what was. In this piece the sun is shining brightly through a forest that is just a memory, reflecting off of ghostly trees rooted in bare exposed soil. I know nature has a way to start anew what these fires destroy, however in our lifetime these forest will never grow to be as majestic as they once were. Other mediums might lend themselves to creating this piece better, but I was trying to use the ones I know best…pen, marker, tissue paper, pencil, and acrylic.
Tag Archives: branches
Discarded Sunset On Kansas
Mixed media 18×24 in. on canvas. Back in the day part of studying photography was you did your own developing and printing, very challenging and costly till you got what you wanted. In this piece I incorporated some discarded B&W nature shots into my painting, along with some discarded fabric from the textile lab. My kids call it the dirty underwear picture, but I never was that cutting edge back then. A closer look and we can see a typical Kansas Winter setting near some fence rows. I also used a brite red cinnamon wrapper to add texture and color. This is a piece that has had no issue (my wife likes it) finding a home in a main traffic area in my house over the years. Talk about slow, I started this in 1974 and completed it in 1988…a story for another time.
How Many Trees Make A Forest
Mixed media 9×12 in. This is a piece that I came back to many times before I felt it was finished. I liked the division of the work and the way the squares formed up, but I kept struggling with the ovals … until I started shading the lighter one. That was when it started to fall into place for me. As to the title…it seemed very obvious to me once I stared at it for 10 days or better.
Between
A 9×12 mixed media. Really enjoyed doing this piece with the bright colors and the hues. The trees were fun and I love the way the branches and foliage work. The much larger trees without foliage seem to become just color variations and background noise. This was all about nature and the wealth of colors we can see when we take time to look.
Purple Leaves
A 12×18 mixed media. One of the earlier pieces in my fall series. I struggled with the orientation on this quite a bit. You might view this with the top being the right-hand side…I actually worked it that way more than halfway thru before changing it. Not much to guess here other than the type of tree I used. It has several sections that depict the every changing leave colors and then the movement to the ground. Would you believe there is about 6-7 layers of work to reach my final piece?
Art by Ken 