Pinergy, 50" x 70", Acrylic

I have finally finished this painting that I started last month. It has gone through many generations of color and layering and it seems to be "needy". I decided not to give her any more energy due to the lack of energy in my field lately. There are so many layers to paintings just like in relationships. Paintings are complex and never solved. They seem to be organic in nature and like relationships they unfold and sometimes get smothered in too much paint.

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Studio Antics

Today I further pushed the Sweet Gum image.  I worked into the details more and then did some background integration.  The colors I am using for this painting are in the purple and orange palette.  Purple and orange when mixed make a nice burnt sienna.  If you add white to it you can generally come up with most of the brown shades needed in nature.

Sweet Gum Tree Pod

Taxonomy of American Sweetgum Trees:

Plant taxonomy classifies American sweetgum trees (also spelled "sweet gum") as Liquidambar styraciflua. The sweetgum tree I recommend is Liquidambar styraciflua 'Rotundiloba,' a sterile, non-fruiting culitivar.

Plant Type: Sweet Gum Tree

American sweetgum trees are deciduous trees, indigenous to the southeastern U.S.

Characteristics of American Sweetgum Trees:

American sweetgum trees bear leaves shaped like stars. The leaves provide excellent fall foliage color: in some cases, at the peak of the fall foliage season, some leaves may be red, others purple, others yellow, others orange -- all on the same sweetgum tree! On some trees, the branches are "winged," as on winged euonymus (burning bush), displaying corky flanges. Most people consider their seed pods (or "fruits," "balls," "gumballs," "capsules") to be messy, so I recommend the fruitless 'Rotundiloba.' Rotundiloba grows 60'-70' tall with a spread not even half that, which helps give it a narrowly pyramidal form.

Plant Taxonomy

Where has this artist been?  Such a beautiful rainy day and I ponder ponder ponder about:

Definition: Plant taxonomy is a system of classification for plants. We use the plant taxonomy developed by Linnaeus (1707-1778).

My research has taken me from the studio of late.  However,  I found myself right back where I started today...the STUDIO...and the painting is fine.

I have been working on a Sweet Gum tree pod painting and am in the middle stages of the painting.  I found my object walking my son home from the bus stop.  I then photographed it and made it studio ready.

Studio ready is another term for lets get to the essence of this thing I am painting.  This requires blowing it up and them making it small. Painting it and smearing it away.  Carving it out and rubbing it back into the ground and then revealing its nature again and again until the figure becomes the ground and the ground becomes the figure. 

Ambiguity

So what about structural ambiguity.  Should not there be a spatial differentiation between the figure and the ground.  I say there should be a questioning process in which both are equally important and both exist at the same time without discretion of the two.  The figure and the ground becomes one.  Is this possible?  I ponder these thoughts as I paint---always.

 

There truly is simplicity amongst the chaos.  Without the opposite in each situation the other would not exist.  I guess the law of the universe require this.  Opposites in nature attract and then repel.  How does one combine such opposites?  

Conifers, Cones and all the Objects of the Earth

I am researching the Earth Objects that I paint.  One of the fun names I came across in my research is Conifers.  The members of the pine family (pines, spruces, firs, cedars, larches, etc.) have cones that are imbricate with scales overlapping each other like fish scales. These are the "archetypal" cones. The scales are spirally arranged in fibonacci number ratios.
The female cone has two types of scale: the bract scales, derived from a modified leaf, and the seed scales (or ovuliferous scales), one subtending each bract scale, derived from a highly modified branchlet. On the upper-side base of each seed scale are two ovules that develop into seeds after fertilisation by pollen grains. The bract scales develop first, and are conspicuous at the time of pollination; the seed scales develop later to enclose and protect the seeds, with the bract scales often not growing further. The scales open temporarily to receive pollen, then close during fertilisation and maturation, and then re-open again at maturity to allow the seed to escape. Maturation takes 6-8 months from pollination in most Pinaceae genera, but 12 months in cedars and 18-24 months (rarely more) in most pines. The cones open either by the seed scales flexing back when they dry out, or (in firs, cedars and golden larch) by the cones disintegrating with the seed scales falling off. The cones are conic, cylindrical or ovoid (egg-shaped), and small to very large, from 2-60 cm long and 1-20 cm broad.

This Week in the Studio...

This Week in the Studio, April 3

It has been a busy week. I am working tirelessly on two very large canvases in the studio. One is a 12 foot canvas. There isn't a lot to report but a lot to see in terms of painting progression. Enjoy!