Pupa

Yes indeed - you have seen this picture before. But the last time it was just a sketch, an unfinished drawing. Now I have nestled the pupa into a bed of dry oak leaves and acorns to protect her from the winter cold.

I must say I am starting to like this new way of drawing that is evolving. Yes, it is a bit darker but it gives such great texture to the image, like static or flakes of atmosphere.

Ever since my art teacher at school (who was brilliant by the way - Ted Akimoto at Munich American High School) spoke to us about the atmosphere, I have been fascinated by what it might contain. I have yet to work out a way of showing this properly and in a way that is not just literal, but may be on the other hand. He described it to explain how the distance is portrayed in paintings using more blue and grey colours as a landscape recedes. But I think i stopped paying my full attention as I started imagining all that pollen, dust, insects and water vapour floating around in the air.

I love it - it makes such a solid mass of life and stuff all around us. We do not wander round in a vacuum. Well of course it is not a vacuum because then we would all be dead. What I mean is that we do not wander around in just good clear air - there are all sorts of other things flying around as we weave our way in between them and they between us.

So perhaps these new drawings are unconsciously a way of showing that. But as it is unconscious I will never know.

Now, what was I thinking about.......

Cathedral - November

Good Morning Art Lovers,

This is today's painting - although as i look at it now the colours look a bit washed out in this image.  Roll on my new camera!  Try to think of it in really rich autumnal colours orange, yellow, browns and purples.  Regal!

This painting as the name suggests shows the majesty of the natural world juxtaposed with man-made wonders.

Forests are such incredible places and i have a fascination with these original churches and places of worship.  

And i do worship at the altar of nature and the natural world.  The wonder of a damp and dark forest on a soft autumn day.  The smell of mould and composting leaves, the sounds of cracking twigs and muffled footsteps.  The sudden find of weird mushrooms and funghi, hidden and found.  

Then there is the wonder of the open sea.  Standing on the shore and watching the strength of the waves as they roll on and on and imagining the depth of the ocean and the unbelievable pressure down, way down, beneath the surface.

The wonder of the stars - looking up at the night sky and trying to count them hehehe!  And feeling sooooo insignificant - just a grain of sand in the grand scheme of things.  It certainly puts things into perspective.

It helps to keep you humble.  Me, it helps to keep me humble.

But then I have to keep on trying in my own small way to make my time here count for something.  And it does - even though I am a grain of sand I am an individual grain, like a fingerprint - there is only one me and I have the freedom and will to try to live my life as well as I can.  Just like everyone else.  And maybe, just maybe, make a difference.

Oh heavens! I do go on!  That is enough for a Wednesday morning - i really only wanted to show you my painting - and i hope you like it.