musings from the studio and beyond ~
dawn chandler’s reflections on art and life. . . .
going BIG ~ large scale and intention with the outback series
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| i realize now the rewards ~ by dawn chandler ~ mixed media on canvas ~ 48″ x 48″ inches ~ copyright dawn chandler 2014 |
There’s just something freeing — liberating — about pushing paint around on a large canvas. Frequently I have to lay the painting on the floor and paint from a kneeling position on the ground, leaning over and pushing large brushes as I dribble and splatter paint.
Looking at a large painting creates a different experience for the viewer, too. Rather than being on the outside looking at this small precious image that you can hold in your hands, with a very large painting you’re presented an experience. If the scale is large enough, you feel as though you can enter into the painting; it becomes an intimate experience.
“I realize that historically the function of painting large pictures is painting something very grandiose and pompous. The reason I paint them, however . . . is precisely because I want to be very intimate and human. To paint a small picture is to place yourself outside your experience, to look upon an experience as a stereopticon view or with a reducing glass. However you paint the larger picture, you are in it. It isn’t something you command!” — Mark Rothko
In the real scheme of things, these paintings of mine really aren’t that large. But compared to the tiny 8″ x 8″ panels I’d been doing (or the 5″ x 7″ plein air sketches) they feel colossal. I love creating them.
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| and what you see ~ by dawn chandler ~ mixed media on canvas ~ 48″ x 48″ inches ~ copyright dawn chandler 2014 |
8.2.14 ~ from the outback series: expanding horizons
And now to go bigger.
The horizontally configured rectangle was working for me.
Despite some very abstract elements, the horizontal format helps to suggest landscape, if even only sub/consciously.
I was digging these paintings, and was itching to go larger; paint bigger. So I did:
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| beyond where we thought ~ by dawn chandler ~ mixed media on canvas ~ 16″ x 36″ ~ copyright dawn chandler 2014 |
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| where i had gone ~ by dawn chandler ~ mixed media on canvas ~ 16″ x 36″ ~ copyright dawn chandler 2014 |
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| allow us so that we can ~ by dawn chandler ~ mixed media on canvas ~ 16″ x 36″ ~ copyright dawn chandler 2014 |
At Playa, I was limited by the size of art I could get into an already full car.
At my old place here in Santa Fe, I was limited in scale due to a cramped studio.
Moving into my new loft space this spring has allowed me to open up and expand my painting in all sorts of glorious ways — including scale.
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| always be my home ~ by dawn chandler ~ mixed media on canvas ~ 24″ x 48″ ~ copyright dawn chandler 2014 |
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| then i find myself ~ by dawn chandler ~ mixed media on canvas ~ 24″ x 48″ ~ copyright dawn chandler 2014 |
This show opens tonight. I hope you can make it.
The Outback Series: Mixed Media Paintings Inspired by the Western Landscape by Dawn Chandler is on view from August 2 – September 12, 2014 at Salon X, 226 Paseo Del Pueblo Norte, Taos, New Mexico, 87571
Opening reception Saturday, August 2, 6:00 – 8:00pm
8.1.14 ~ from the outback series: beyond the square
The square proved limiting.
Compositionally the square is hard to work with. I knew that. Which is partly why I was thinking I’d work with it — I’m kind of drawn to those kinds of challenges. But the truth is — though I made some neat images — the square wasn’t really working with my vision for what I wanted these paintings to be.
I realized that after a couple of great studio conversations with some of my fellow artists at Playa.
So.
I gathered up the less successful squares, glued them in pairs onto rectangular panels, and with paint started merging two squares into one horizontal painting.
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| it’s learning what is real ~ by dawn chandler ~ mixed media ~ 8″ x 16″ ~ copyright dawn chandler 2014 |
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| just to stay ~ by dawn chandler ~ mixed media ~ 8″ x 16″ ~ copyright dawn chandler 2014 |
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| edging on knowing ~ by dawn chandler ~ mixed media ~ 8″ x 16″ ~ copyright dawn chandler 2014 |
And in some, I began to push the abstraction more.
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| the coming of winter ~ by dawn chandler ~ mixed media ~ 8″ x 16″ ~ copyright dawn chandler 2014 |
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| of sunrises and alkali lakes ~ by dawn chandler ~ mixed media ~ 8″ x 16″ ~ copyright dawn chandler 2014 |
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| No. 61 ~ oil on linen ~ by Mark Rothko |
Here’s the thing: for me — to my eye — just about any time you have a horizontal line, I see a horizon. I don’t care what anyone else says or sees — you are always invited to see what you see — but for me, a horizontal line is Earth. Call me an incurable land-romantic; a dyed-in-the-wool landscape painter no matter what form or expression my art takes. He’s surely rolling in his grave with this statement, but Mark Rothko’s paintings to me have always been about landscape.
So all those horizontal lines here and there in my paintings? Horizons. Shifting horizons.
Memories of horizons. The sweep of land, of distant water, of far off vistas. Of land and sky.
Of breaking day and fading light.
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| water’s edge, i ~ by dawn chandler ~ mixed media ~ 8″ x 16″ ~ copyright dawn chandler 2014 |
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| water’s edge, ii ~ by dawn chandler ~ mixed media ~ 8″ x 16″ ~ copyright dawn chandler 2014 |
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| of land and sky and water ~ by dawn chandler ~ mixed media ~ 8″ x 16″ ~ copyright dawn chandler 2014 |
The Outback Series: Mixed Media Paintings Inspired by the Western Landscape by Dawn Chandler is on view from August 2 – September 12, 2014 at Salon X, 226 Paseo Del Pueblo Norte, Taos, New Mexico, 87571
Opening reception Saturday, August 2, 6:00 – 8:00pm
7.30.14 ~ from the outback series: interpretting my world in 64 square inches
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| outback meditations |
Playing. That’s how this all began.
First I painted the land literally. Every day. Each painting was a pair of two pieces of paper — a diptych — each measuring 4″ x 8″ and paired to make a 4″ x 16″ image.
Why that size?
Because that’s all I had.
The larger “art board” I’d ordered hadn’t arrived yet, and the only other paper I had with me those first couple of days were 8″ x 8″ pieces of watercolor paper. I knew I wanted these ‘literal’ studies to be small. But 4″ x 8″ felt too limited.
That expansive horizon line demanded a longer proportion!
So daily 4″ x 16″ diptychs it was going to be.
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| 13 november 2013 ~ from outback meditations; detail ~ by dawn chandler ~ mixed media on paper ~ 4″ x 16″ ~ copyright dawn chandler 2014 |
And then I began to “play.”
Just let loose with paint and ink and let the landscape emerge over the printed words.
I don’t remember why I began these as squares. I think maybe I thought a horizontal rectangle would be too obviously “landscape,” and since I was already going to use landscape features in these paintings, I was reluctant to be too “obvious.”
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| capable of so much ~ by dawn chandler ~ mixed media ~ 8″ x 8″ ~ copyright dawn chandler 2014 |
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| the view was fleeting ~ by dawn chandler ~ mixed media ~ 8″ x 8″ ~ copyright dawn chandler 2014 |
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| quiet and vast ~ by dawn chandler ~ mixed media ~ 8″ x 8″ ~ copyright dawn chandler 2014 |
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| the limit beyond ~ by dawn chandler ~ mixed media ~ 8″ x 8″ ~ copyright dawn chandler 2014 |
You may begin to notice a few new symbols emerging in some of these: the black scribblings — my attempt to capture to the flocks of black birds that flew back and forth over my studio between the old orchard and the pond (and who are frequent callers on my walks in New Mexico, too); and that thin blue-grey-silver-white-lavendar-pewter horizontal line — a line that haunts me still: The distant mirror-line of Summer Lake.
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| willow ravens iii ~ by dawn chandler ~ mixed media ~ 8″ x 8″ ~ copyright dawn chandler 2014 |
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| when i escape ~ by dawn chandler ~ mixed media ~ 8″ x 8″ ~ copyright dawn chandler 2014 |
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| understand where we confide ~ by dawn chandler ~ mixed media ~ 8″ x 8″ ~ copyright dawn chandler 2014 |
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| wind swaying down softly ~ by dawn chandler ~ mixed media ~ 8″ x 8″ ~ copyright dawn chandler 2014 |
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| beyond myself and i~ by dawn chandler ~ mixed media ~ 8″ x 8″ ~ copyright dawn chandler 2014 |
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| and then it came~ by dawn chandler ~ mixed media ~ 8″ x 8″ ~ copyright dawn chandler 2014 |
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| a new sense of vastness ~ by dawn chandler ~ mixed media ~ 8″ x 8″ ~ copyright dawn chandler 2014 |
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| joy wonder soul ~ by dawn chandler ~ mixed media ~ 8″ x 8″ ~ copyright dawn chandler 2014 |
The Outback Series: Mixed Media Paintings Inspired by the Western Landscape by Dawn Chandler is on view from August 2 – September 12, 2014 at Salon X, 226 Paseo Del Pueblo Norte, Taos, New Mexico, 87571
Opening reception Saturday, August 2, 6:00 – 8:00pm
7.24.14 ~ the outback series: mixed media paintings inspired by the western landscape by dawn chandler ~ opening august 2, 2014
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| always be my home ~ by dawn chandler ~ mixed media ~ 24″ x 48″ ~ copyright dawn chandler 2014 |
The Outback Series: Mixed Media Paintings Inspired by the Western Landscape by Dawn Chandler
These paintings are the direct result of my desire to merge my two distinct painting styles of ‘traditional landscape’ and ‘mixed media-abstraction” into a new visual language for myself; a language that conjures the experience and memory of landscape, without being overly literal. Memories and impressions of flickers of light, deep shadows, textures, patterns, the calligraphy of bird flight, shifting horizons, reflections of sky and of self come together as a collage—a patchwork—of passages and expanses of color; of bigness and smallness, of sight and silence.
Incorporated into these images are words, inviting one to pause and ponder. Echoing memory, some words are ghost-like, some are clear; some are nonsensical, others poetic.
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| just to stay ~ by dawn chandler ~ mixed media ~ 8″ x 16″ ~ copyright dawn chandler 2014 |
The text I’ve used are the responses to my query: What have you learned from your experiences in nature? Over the course of the last year, people of all ages and from all over the country have responded to this question posed on my website as well as on postcards that I’ve distributed. A good many of the responses came from teenagers—participants in Philmont Scout Ranch’s Rayado Program, an intense three-week backpacking experience similar to Outward Bound.
Why not use my own words, my own answer to the question? Partly because I was curious to see what kind of a response such a query would elicit. Partly, too, I knew my own words might be too subjective–too precious–and I therefore might be reluctant to disrupt them. Further, I hoped that others’ participation in this process would inspire me, and infuse the work with a soulfulness different than were I working from my imagination alone.
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| quiet and vast ~ by dawn chandler ~ mixed media ~ 8″ x 8″ ~ copyright dawn chandler 2014 |
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| wind swaying down slowly ~ by dawn chandler ~ mixed media ~ 8″ x 8″ ~ copyright dawn chandler 2014 |
My work on this painting series began in earnest in November 2013 when I was an artist in residence at Playa Creative Residency program in Summer Lake, Oregon—the heart of the dramatic, desolate Oregon Outback of central and eastern Oregon.
For five weeks there I watched the sun rise each morning, and then walked in the early sunlight, enthralled by the shimmering light, the immense clouds and curtains of dust that formed above the always-changing alkali Summer Lake. I watched the sunlight across mudflats and prairie grass and mesa-like ridge-lines; watched crows and hawks and ravens and geese and gnarled orchards and golden willows; watched deep purple shadows lengthen and recede and golden light cut across reflected blue sky. If you think I’m mistaken and am describing instead the landscape of my New Mexico home, you’re not far off. For I was stunned to discover these two states more than 1,200 miles apart are akin in their breadth and majesty.
Each morning I began my studio practice by painting a small “traditional” landscape based on the views from my studio window. These are collected together in the work, Outback Meditations:
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| outback meditations ~ by dawn chandler ~ mixed media ~ 72″ x 48″ ~ copyright dawn chandler 2014. Daily diptych (pairs of two) paintings created each day for 30 days while at Playa. They flow in the sequence of days from left to right, beginning in the upper left corner. |
From there I attempted to “abstract” the landscape, onto panels I’d prepared first by gluing them with printed text—the responses to my above-mentioned query. As I worked with paint and ink and layers of paper, words were concealed and then revealed through layers of color; whole sentences disappeared, and then words and fragments of phrases would emerge, forming an unexpected poetry. The same, too, with the landscape itself, as the painted geography would shift, be concealed, reconfigured, and revealed again:
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| water’s edge, ii ~ by dawn chandler ~ mixed media ~ 8″ x 16″ ~ copyright dawn chandler 2014 |
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| edging on knowing ~ by dawn chandler ~ mixed media ~ 8″ x 16″ ~ copyright dawn chandler |
The Outback Series: Mixed Media Paintings Inspired by the Western Landscape by Dawn Chandler is on view from August 2 – September 12, 2014 at Salon X, 226 Paseo Del Pueblo Norte, Taos, New Mexico, 87571
Opening reception Saturday, August 2, 6:00 – 8:00pm