The Landscapes of my Dream
I am teaching myself how to paint. I am teaching myself how to see. I am learning how to stay still and wait for the vision to come clear. I am never going to just paint a landscape. I am going to paint landscapes from within my vision. This range of the Canadian Rocky mountains looking west into the Crowsnest Pass from the Prairies is etched into the horizon of my life. Castle. Corner. Victoria Peak. Table. Turtle. Talon Peak. Crowsnest. The Seven Sisters. The Livingstone Range. I have climbed most of these mountains. They are in my muscle memory. I lived below the Frank Slide in the coal mining town of Frank. Crowsnest Mountain (The CROW) was in my peripheral vision twenty four hours a day. Mountains shimmer in the distance. How to capture the sense of distance. Oh yes, how to paint a sunset receding in the distance. The exercise here was to paint the landscape of my dream. Almost.
I really like the details from your paintings - they could almost be complete paintings in their own right.
ReplyDeleteGreat story about the crow. I once found an injured loon in the middle of the road on a rainy night. I wrapped it in my coat and brought it home in car. Halfway home it let out its signature call from the back seat - almost went off the road.