Alluvian Landscape
March 18, 2009 by Janice
Alluvian. A-lu-vi-an. Let it roll around on your tongue like water running over a stone. Here’s another. Riparian. It’s an ancient sounding word for that lush area adjacent to a river. And here’s another. Estuary. Where layers of life begin. Moving water, sediments, and organic growth. Hm, I seem to be painting them, but transported to New Mexico. This is what is coming from just letting my raw plan and my inclination meet up so far.
These are what my inner paint puddles are making.
I am smiling at them and just shaking my head. Cezanne once said that to paint the essence of an orange you paint several together. A bit from one, this part from another, and over here, this. What you get in total is its orange-ness. I am laughing at myself, because here in the middle of a painting about high dry country, I am finding its essential wetness. Adjacencies, sediments and openings of flow.
I am a wetlands painter.
Connectors, canopies, organic growth. Like some inner vocabulary that just has to come out. No matter what I am composing. A signature of self. That I thrill over that simple round of brown stone in the pink on the middle right, nearby some holdover pine needles, right near a prickly pear has me chagrined.
Steps away can lead us right back to ourselves.
This painting is a fantasy piece, but not really. Every part is as true as can be. Every part a part of me. Still guessing, still letting a simple idea lead, I follow. And what I am getting even with juxtapositions and unfamiliar ground…is me…but me trying to find meaning. Me tramping over new ground. But look there’s the water, there are those places in between, and there, there are flows and connectors. Hm, I think I will throw that shephard bulto in just to shake it up. And I see crab claws too in the foothills that roll into that sky.
I thought I was painting landscapes all this time, but I think I was painting me.
Now that sounds all kinds of narcissistic. But here’s how it isn’t. Voice. Developing voice, enriching voice, staying true, is best found when you befriend random. It has been my experience that the more you explore the edges, the more you experiment, the constant becomes you. And consistency, now there is a very good thing.
Yep. I think I ‘ll go see what a crab claw has to do with a desert. And a shepard to do with a cactus.
Have you pushed yourself outside your comfort zone in your work lately? Have you discovered anything fun?
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9 Responses to “Alluvian Landscape”
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Riparian . . . now that’s a word I’ve only heard in the context of real estate, one of those things realtors had to learn about (riparian rights) but never use in practice.
Your paintings really get my wheels going and make me want to learn to paint. It’s an idea I’ve fostered a few years, and I even have the supplies, but paying someone for a class isn’t in the cards right now. I think it will be though, soon.
But I have been taking chances in my writing, in particular at my blog. Not only in what I talk about there but in how I say things. It has been liberating, but sometimes it’s difficult to maintain the liberty and I want to fall back into my comfort zones.
Terry Heath’s last blog post..A Rant About Actually Being Qualified To Do Stuff
I’ve been getting sick of painting landscapes.
So this week, I did a still life of a burger and fries.
(Most fun I’ve had in a long while!)
Friar’s last blog post..I know these things to be true, because cartoons tell me so.
Reminds me of something you shared with me about the meaning of memoir…
I’m fascinated by where this is going and what you discovering…
Not least the power of that sentence:
“I am a wetlands painter”
Shivers down my spine.
Joanna Young’s last blog post..Are You Tuning in to Positive Feedback?
Janice,
YES! I love that.
It’s true of all of us, whether we’re writers or painters or designers or architects (and maybe even businesspeople), but it’s hard to see until you look back.
Now matter how hard they try to tell you No (and some do), all artists are only painting themselves.
When I look back, I’m sure your art has taught me as much about you as your words. And alluvian is a lovely word-picture for part of Janice.
Love this post!
Regards,
Kelly
Kelly’s last blog post..WIN a Prize & Wish MCE a Happy 300th
Wow,
What fabulous comments to wake up to this morning.
Terry-What kind of painting materials do you have? Because the artist in me wants to get you started right away. LOL. I’ve been enjoying your posts and see some push there. Working in this chaos series makes me appreciate the good part of what my work has been. I feel a strong tug to do a “normal” piece again. But even those will be done with a difference. A more expansive one.
Friar-Oh I have to come see!! My server has been so wonky this week, in fact everything electronic has been a challenge, that I haven’t been able to visit as I normally do. See you in a bit, Hamburglar man.
Joanna-Do you see the suggestion of Frogs Spawn in this piece? I think I do.
This is probably Memoir painting of some sort. That simple statement has power for me too. Like confronting a mirror that I used to think was confining, but I see the broadness of the statement now.
Kelly-I think we all do it, or at least if we push, we do find that essential part that is there no matter what. Look what Frank Gehry HAS to have in his designs. Look at what you always are wanting for businesses no matter what they are.
@Janice: I’ve got some watercolor paper, brushes and paints . . . some oil and acrylics to but I have no idea how to use them. I’ve done a little watercolor-ing. Hmm. Maybe I’ll give it a shot.
Glad you’re enjoying my posts . . . yeah, I can be “push” all over the place. LOL
Terry’s last blog post..A Rant About Actually Being Qualified To Do Stuff
Terry,
Take off your shoe. Yep. One you wear every day. Get out a watercolor brush. Dip it in one color, maybe blue. And then look carefully at your shoe. Pick a point to begin and move your eye slowly over the contour (outline). Move that brush on the paper as your eyes traces the line you find. If the shape is heavy, bear down on the brush. If it is a light lace, soften the pressure. Do not worry about proportion. Just get the shape of it, and points of interest to you. Stop when you get a complete image , but a simple one.
Voila. Your shoe. Let it dry. Then do other objects familiar to you. Same thing. Contour drawings with a brush and one color. Play with the line for a while.
I dare you. LOL. Then send me some jpegs.
I can push too.
Lovely, Janice–I really like your meanderings here, and the new site looks fabulous. Your description for Terry here sounds like a class. I’ll come! I could use it!
sue’s last blog post.."I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled…" (TS Eliot)
Sue-LOL. It is a class I have taught many times. Hm, now how to make that doable online? I’ll work on that.