Cuyamaca Burnt Tree Grove, Oil on linen 18x 24 inches 11/04/09
I hiked into a spot in the Cuyamaca Rancho State Park, near the Stonewall Mine area for this awesome stand of burnt trees from the big Witch Creek fire here in 2003. I am thinking of exploring this subject further. Sadly, this particular spot is about an hour’s drive so the logistics of getting there is tougher.
Larry, I really enjoy your work!Beautiful stuff.
Thanks Don! Glad to hear it. I just checked out your spirit cloud painting on your blog – wonderfully expressive form, engaging work all around. I particularly liked the cloud painting – reflections you did from memory.
Larry,
I really like the way you put the paint down in this painting ( and what you put down ). Have you been able to carry the broadness and looseness of the paint as seen here into the larger paintings of man-made structures?
Maybe I’m speaking more to problems in my own painting, but do you find
yourself tightening up on paintings like the last one of the overpasses for
fear of inaccuracy?
Hi Hunter,
Thanks. My thinking is that these these burnt trees will allow me to explore a number of interests in more of a related series of paintings – which isn’t something I usually do. You are right that, for me at least, the architectural forms tend to ask for greater fidelity to what I’m seeing. You are able to “get away’ with a lot more with organic forms in the landscape. I still try to be as honest as I can in drawing the trees – I don’t make up trees or significantly move them around for compositional reasons. I may edit out a tree or move it somewhat. The main reason, I guess, the trees seem so much looser is that this painting is much larger than I usually make for a one sitting painting (18 x 24) although it turned into a 2 sitting painting. The light changes extremely quickly at that time of day and I was nervous I wouldn’t get another chance as the scene was so far away (an hour’s drive and a bit of a hike) from where I live. I also am using larger brushes and more paint, I’m using a larger hand made palette box that allows a much bigger surface for my paint mixing and carries larger amounts of paint more easily. I do want to concentrate more on the larger color feeling of the painting and less on finicky details you will often see in the bridge/freeway paintings.
Also I admit to being a bit nervous about reading in wikipedia about the Mountain Lion sightings and attacks over the past several years in the state park, Cuyamaca, I was painting in. I had just seen a bobcat so my mind was on it in a big way, looking over my shoulder a lot. (Mountain Lions tend to attack from behind, I’ve heard, going straight for the spinal cord!)
Anyway, I’ve been assured that it would be more likely to be abducted by an alien ship than get attacked by a mountain lion so I will be going back asap to paint as soon as I have the time.