musings from the studio and beyond ~
dawn chandler’s reflections on art and life. . . .
05.02.2012 ~ cathedral rock, i
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| cathedral rock, i ~ oil and mixed media on panel ~ 12 x 24 inches ~ copyright dawn chandler 2012 |
A view of Cathedral Rock and the reservoir — the gateway to Philmont’s “Central Country”
Curses Cathedral Rock! You are hard to paint!
When searching for photos of this landmark, inevitably photos seem to be limited to three times of day: Sunrise, midday, sunset.
If you catch the view for sunrise, then the rock is silhouetted. That can make for a beautiful photograph but it makes for a less interesting painting.
Midday the colors are pretty washed out, with few shadows to help describe the volumes and contours of the rock and land. Everything falls flat.
At sunset, if you wait until the sky has some vivid color to it, by the time that color hits, the land has fallen into such shadow that the land and rock are more or less silhouetted again.
Time of day aside, there’s the issue of composition. The typical view of Cathedral Rock is from the southwest side of the reservoir, looking east toward the rock. What a view! It’s gorgeous! And naturally well-balanced, framed with meadow and water and sky. But that’s just it: it’s such a stunning view, it’s the one everyone photographs, so it’s become the iconic view; a cliche. But, it’s accessible. I mean literally. You walk right by it!
What I’d really like to do is get out there when the shadows are long and there are clouds in the sky. Not too many clouds, mind you — just enough to add visual interest, but still allow for sunlight to break through and dapple the scene. Late afternoon sometime.
And then to scramble around and try to get different angles on the scene….
For now though, I’m limited to the images I have available. But if anyone reading this has some good pics of Cathedral Rock, I’d love to see them — even if they are the “traditional” view.
Anyhow, despite the iconic view portrayed here in my painting, I’m reasonably satisfied with how this panel turned out, especially when I consider the inadequate photo it was based on. I struggled to tease out a little more of a sense of sunlight, but haven’t quite hit the mark; my interpretation falls a little flat for me, but it’s okay. I’ll keep trying with other panels.
Below, a few details:
04.29.2012 ~ canyon awakening
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| slickhorn canyon, utah ~ cottonwoods, i ~ oil on panel ~ 6 x 6 inches ~ copyright dawn chandler 2012 |
a week ago.
….Well, just around that bend… my first night ‘on the trail’ in over two decades.
I’m a bit incredulous by that realization: that nearly a quarter-century had passed since I’d been backpacking.
Where has the time gone?
I guess I’ve just been busy doing other things. Some pretty cool things at that, I’d do well to remember.
But still.
I was nearly weened on the Appalachian Trail. Some of my most essential memories and moments of divine insight were on wilderness trails with a pack on my back. It’s why, despite my infatuation with “abstract” painting, I keep returning to the land, in an attempt to capture the spirit and beauty of a recognizable — and all too quickly diminishing — Nature.
Perhaps it’s no surprise then that I’ve been feeling the call of the midnight trails again. The spirit of Colin Fletcher must be elbowing out some of my more familiar spirits of late….
Whatever the spiritual intervention, all I know is that when friends invited My Good Man and me to join them on a long weekend backpacking trip in Slickhorn Canyon in southeastern Utah, we jumped at the chance.
And what a trip it was….
…Perfect weather — warm days, cool (but not too cool) nights, the bluest of skies that filled with countless stars — many of the them shooting — on those moonless nights.
…Hardly another contemporary human in site for three days. I say ‘contemporary’ because the presence of Ancients was everywhere. We hiked and slept beneath their abandoned cliff dwellings, their pottery sherds, dried corncobs and painted walls evidence of their long-ago existence.
…Delectable food (Praise Be to Trader Joe’s and Backpacker’s Pantry.)
…Delightful conversation and companionship.
I can’t recall a time in recent memory when I’ve been so completely “in the moment” as I was those three days in the Canyon.
04.24.2012 ~ stowe, vermont 02
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| ~ stowe, vermont, ii ~ oil and mixed media on panel ~ 12 x 24 inches ~ copyright dawn chandler 2012 ~ |
The second of my new landscape series (Phase One) and another snowy Vermont scene.
This painting reveals the underscribing mentioned in my previous post. The scribing is especially apparent in the side wall of the barn:
And here, in the early stages:
Some may find the scribing offputting, but I enjoy the surface tension and ambiguity it creates. The writing fragments beg questions that the landscape without writing would never raise.
I admit that with spring blossoming all around and the wave of summer lapping on every breeze, it’s a bit hard to get excited about snow scenes….
Likely this will be the last time I visit winter for a while. Time to immerse myself in mild climes!
04.17.2012 ~ new painting series kick off: stowe, vermont, i
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| ~ stowe, vermont, i ~ oil and mixed media on panel ~ 12 x 24 inches ~ copyright dawn chandler 2012 ~ |
Starting this week I’ll be posting the beginnings of a new paintings series. The ultimate goal of this project is to unite my two painting passions: landscape with mixed media ‘abstraction’.
The first phase of my process is to create a series of “traditional” landscape paintings (see the first one of the series, above: stowe, vermont, i). Once I’ve created these, the next phase will be to start abstracting the landscape in a second round of panels. I’m anticipating that the third phase will be to take what I’ve learned from the first two steps and work much larger. I have other ideas, too, for that phase, but I’ll articulate them when I get there.
For now I am working on Phase One. A few simple parameters have developed as I’ve been working:
— Each painting is long on the horizontal, measuring 12 x 24 inches (proportion of height:width = 1:2). The support for each painting is a hard thin Ampersand Gessoboard panel, stained a warm brownish:
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| Ampersand gessoboard panel stained brown. |
— The painting starts with a very loose underpainting also in warm browns, and writing — or scribing, as I like to think of it — across the surface:
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| Loose underpainting and scribing for stowe, vermont, i by Dawn Chandler. Copyright Dawn Chandler 2012. |
What am I scribing? Really, anything that’s on my mind at the time…. thoughts…. dreams…
ambitions…
observations…
memories…
hopes…
prayers….
Why do it?
Because I like it.
The act of writing my thoughts out clears my head before commencing to paint. And I like the idea of imbuing my paintings with this soulful, confessional act.
And then when I paint, sometimes my words bleed through. Landscape traditionalists may balk at that, but I love it. It’s a little “surprise” in the surface of the painting, creating a tension with the depth of realisim.
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| Detail of scribing across the underpainting of stowe, vermont, i by Dawn Chandler. Copyright Dawn Chandler 2012 |
Below, details of the finished Phase One painting, stowe, vermont, i. No scribing is bleeding through much on this first painting; it’s more prevalent in some of the others.
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| Detail of stowe, vermont, i by Dawn Chandler. Copyright Dawn Chandler 2012. |
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| Another detail of stowe, vermont, i by Dawn Chandler. Copyright Dawn Chandler 2012. |
04.09.2012 ~ still tethered
I love the chunky ribbon of yarn in her hair, and the delicate way she is holding the flower stem.
To the right of her…the woman in white grew out of a photo of an anonymous woman from the turn of the last century. The photo happened to crop out her head, as the photographer was more focused on other things going on in the picture frame, her figure being secondary. I’ve made her prominent, elongating her white dress making it larger than life.
I didn’t premeditate this painting, it just grew as the painting evolved, first with the image of the white dress, I think, and then the photo of me. The figure in the white dress reminds me of two art historical images:
That of Edith Minturn Stokes as portrayed by John Singer Sargent in his portrait Mr. & Mrs. I.N. Phelps Stokes:
The string tethering the little girl to the woman in the white gown in my painting is from a tea bag. Ghosted in the background are fragments of Barbara Rockman’s poem, per the theme of this series of paintings.