After Covid and the struggle of trying to get my art and designs out into the world again, I realized that I needed to return to the basics… to make art with paint.
So I upgraded my watercolor palette; purchased new paints and played with them for awhile. Then I went to a wedding in Windermere, where a tour of the local art galleries led me to the work of David Langevin. The bold colours and Seussical feel of his tree paintings inspired me.
That summer I took dozens of tree photos and purchased acrylic materials and tools, thinking I’d make a series of tree paintings.
Almost all of the tree photos I took in BC the summer of 2022 were drive-by and this one was no exception. The first in the above lineup of images was the original. Later, at home, I did a series of digital light and color tweaks, finally settling on something dark and moody (i.e. image #4). The last of these five images is the acrylic painting I never quite finished. Ironically, the only thing missing is the tree.
Acrylics: A Lost and Found Story
I’d made some early-years attempts at painting with acrylic but, for one reason or another, abandoned it for other mediums and other modes of expression. My last session with acrylic (until recently) was on a warm summer day at the cabin with my mother. I’d brought along a copy of The Acrylics Book: Materials and Techniques for Today’s Artist by Barclay Sheaks, and we set out try “Acrylics as Opaque Watercolor on Wet Canvas” (pages 142 & 143). The results were good but I was exhausted and convinced it wasn’t for me.
I had, actually, already fallen deeply in love with the unpredictable, fluid characteristic of watercolor.
I love it still.
Roots and Wings series 4 3, watercolor
Roots and Wings series 4 2, watercolor
My recent plan to paint trees with acrylic paints was somewhat successful but ended in frustration. Not wanting to give up entirely nor waste the materials I’d invested in, I experimented with various acrylic painting techniques.
"Imagining Mama (Out There Somewhere)"... Painted the year my mother died. I could not sense her presence the way my siblings were at that time. It felt as though she were lost. A couple of years later I realized it was I who was lost. Mama loved to paint flowers. Her favourite colour was pink. A psychic once told her she was destined to travel and, years later, she travelled quite a lot to be with her grown children. I hope that, somewhere out there, these things are still true. Perhaps that is what I was feeling deep inside when I painted this.
"Prehistory", a dark acrylic pour, private collection.
"Prehistory Red"
"Low Light", embellished pour.
"Under Water", a small and early experiment with skins, private collection
"Smoke", an ambitious layered project with skins on two adjoined canvases. The black and white overlay is one piece from a single pour. 16" x 20"
"High Society", plant life rules and is abundant in my collections.
"Borealis", playing with light curves and tree skins
These experiments were fun and productive but I eventually became frustrated again. It was then that I realized that what I really wanted (and needed)—no matter what the medium—was to paint in my own style, to reconnect with what it is that makes art-making magical for me: losing self-consciousness through the process, and discovering new ways of looking at things.
So I reached back to the time of intense watercolor painting and the emergence of my painting style.
Using some of my previous watercolor paintings as preliminary renderings, as patterns of a sort, I began a series of bold, textured acrylics. The motifs within these paintings aren’t necessarily new but they have a new intensity…a new life.
It’s like falling in love all over again.
"Solstice"; 2nd rendering of Roots and Wings series 5 2, acrylic pour and skins, 10" x 20" wrapped canvas (1.5 inch)
Signature on the side
"Leave My Leafs!"; 2nd rendering of Roots and Wings series 4 3, acrylic pour and skins, 9" x 12" wrapped canvas (1.5 inch)
"Thin Disguise"; 2nd rendering of Roots and Wings series 4 2, acrylic pour and skins, 9" x 12" wrapped canvas (1.5 inch)
"Moon Walk", acrylic pour and skins on 12" round canvas
"Along Tere Road", acrylic pour and skins, 12" round wrapped canvas