Back Stories 1

Last year I had posted all the artwork in my current gallery. I was reminded, though, that sometimes simply seeing an image is not enough to help viewers connect with it, people enjoy hearing something about the back story and the process involved in the creation. So that is the purpose of this blog today.

 A couple summers ago I was able to take a day trip with some friends into the mountains of Romania. It was a pretty impressive trip for me since it was really my first time seeing sizable mountains. Being that it was a cloudy, misty day I actually was tricked a little. You see, I was looking at these amazing mountains when suddenly, in one small city, a cloud scooted over to one side and I was amazed to see the true height of a nearby mountain. I had to look a good 45 degree angle upward to see the summit of an immense geographical formation stretching above us. It was beautiful, rugged, and greyish-blue. Walking through the town to get lunch a lunch of shwarma, we were able to buy small cups of raspberries from an old gentleman who had picked them from the mountains earlier that day.

This particular scene is from a photo taken from near the top of one such mountain. There was a resort of some kind on the top as well as a ski lift painted red that could repeatedly be viewed overhead as we criss-crossed up and down the winding mountain road.

When I painted this scene I had recently just purchased a set of watercolor paints and was quite new with them. This took about three hours to make, which is about twice as long as I usually spend on a piece. I really enjoyed the process of getting to lay in the rich colors of the tree branches and the more subtle colors of the mountains beyond. Most people would paint the scene with no telephone wires, but I have found a fascination in telephone wires and the lines they can create in a composition, thus I left them in. Not to mention the color contrast with the basic blue and green hues that dominate the scene.

The scene above is also from a misty, foggy day, but in quite a different setting. Many of you may be familiar with Pewaukee Lake. My sister and I used to work as nannies for a family in the area and sometimes would drive to and from work together. This place happens to have been on our "commute" home, and sometimes we would get out, walk around, rent a canoe, or get coffee at Brewer's 2 Cafe. For this painting I actually had my paints with me but no paper, so my sister let me use a piece of hers. We were in a coffee shop and I was really just painting some photo from my phone because I often use painting or drawing as a way to unwind when I am just too tense.

In this painting I wanted to experiment using some of the colors I never seem to touch, purple for example. (Who likes purple anyway?) But purple actually works quite well as a shadowy color and it played it's role quite well in this piece.

What I really loved about this piece is the way the misty trees come together to form the backdrop, the brilliant color of the man's jacket out on the pier, and something about the monochromatic scheme it took on. Everything works together to create this quiet and thoughtful scene.

This piece was actually purchased by some friends in 2015 when I was raising money to travel to Romania, but later given back to me when they were downsizing from a home to a camper. It was later chosen by some other friends of ours when we wanted to give them a gift and let them pick from any of my ready-to-hang pieces.