"Currently In Show" - "Little Saint" at the Sunshine Gallery Community Exhibition!

I have been so absorbed in producing latest works and process development, as well as attending these shows and other friends shows, that I've been forgetting to post about them!

Well, I participate in an annual community exhibition for the city of Lancaster held at the Sunshine Gallery, where 10x10" cradled wood boards are provided for each participating artist to do...something...with.

It was a fun challenge for me, as I've never worked on cradled wood before.

I've been developing thoughts, sketches, studies, and concepts for this recent immersion into the mythology and cultural history of trees, and I wanted to continue working with the subject for the show.

So I put this little chappie out there - A little "saint":

"Little Saint" - Mixed Media on Cradled Wood, 2016

Some look at the process of exploration playing this concept into a cohesive finished work:

Gold-leafing is the next step, followed by more layers of matte medium:

"Little Saint" is now available for purchase

-Mairin-Taj

On Drawing Trees & Nature - Tree Post IV

The Infinity Tree continues!
{Review the dialogue for Tree Post I, II, and III here...}

"Harding...fervently believed that nature's beauties are unendingly abundant and infinitely various", writes a contemporary critic - George Landow - of the master and drawing companion to John Ruskin, J. D. Harding.

He passionately advocated for the truth in representational, 'high' art of the natural world, through as unburdened an observation as possible.

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Harding instructs us to "produce as near a likeness to Nature, in every respect, as the instrument, or material employed, will admit of; not so much by bona fide imitation, as by reviving in the mind those ideas which are awakened by a contemplation of Nature.... The renewal of those feelings constitutes the true purpose of Art".

And so I begin the toned ground and under-drawing search for inner form structure of "The Infinity Tree", keeping the goal of believable representation balanced with evocative breathability of being within my mind's eye...

His protégé John Ruskin established clearer guidance on the same philosophy, observing "nature contrives never to repeat herself", perceiving that "there is indeed in nature variety in all things", declaring that:

"The truths of nature are one eternal change — one infinite variety...there is not one of her [Nature's] shadows, tints, or lines that is not in a state of perpetual variation: I do not mean in time, but in space. There is not a leaf in the world which has the same color visible over its whole surface". 

"Nothing can be natural which is monotonous; nothing true which tells only one story...", says Ruskin.

Which of course leads us to mark-making variation and the variety imbued to the subjects of the image.

Keep building and finding growth patterns in varied iterations:

And do not forget the rules of trees, integral to creating a believable tree-being instead of an oddly wonky figure that defies natural tree growth and all the laws of physics.

Trees are fractal in nature, so that patterns of form growth in the larger parts of the tree will be repeated and extended into the smaller scale parts of the tree.

Leonardo Da Vinci, the great Renaissance man the Arts reference so frequently, explained this aspect of tree rule as "all the branches of a tree at every stage of its height when put together are equal in thickness to the trunk".

The rule for tree growth is explained by both hydrological and structural theories, meaning that the forces for efficient sap flow and design for stress resistance and integrity define the tree's growth.

Form follows function.

Here's a comparison between before and after preliminary rendering on a few root structures:

the larger forms put down provisionally...

finding the finer forms within the larger forms to further define the roots...

End of part IV.

Part V will continue this drawing stage breakdown with further examination of the art world's wisdom for trees, visual truth, fantastical philosophy, and technical execution, with the final "Infinity Tree" drawing reveal.

-Mairin-Taj

Building Up "The Safe Place" - Painting Process from Roots to Rendering

Sometimes the term 'build' is incredibly apt in describing the process through which a concept and all its integral, multifaceted parts, come together into a cohesive image.

As artists, we might more often tend to use words like "develop" or "compose" a concept, a composition, and these terms are accurate, certainly. But this painting, as well as a lot of other recent works I've been working on, have been "built" more than anything, and a large part of that has to do with the finer points in the way they were constructed, from start to finish.

This piece, "The Safe Place", was quite directly built out of the 11x14" space which it is placed in on the 400 lb. hot press Arches watercolor paper.

I designed my domain to work in, I roughly knocked out a thumbnail for guidance, I arranged my reference material, and I built this tree from the ground up, in one week, start to finish.

Here's the process, with some breakdown description, from that start to finish week:

This is what the start of any idea looks like on paper, for me. Loose and fast; shapes in value within a frame.

If you follow any of my social media posts for process, or have seen my blog before, you'll recognize this as my typical rough sketch and/or thumbnail approach.

And the following is the immediate result of choking back on the soft graphite pencil, letting the relaxed, dancerly strokes find my vision through rhythm, internal contour, and layered structure. Building it up into a state where I can go back in and start better defining the constructed forms with committed, articulate line weight variation and swatches of value definition:

Click the image for larger view

A close up of the woman's form to see a little more of the tonal detail I smudged in and carved out with an eraser.

I built up the tree as you see it above, more into the rest of the branches and roots, detailing shapes and lighting with rather abstract, calligraphic line work through tone and erasing of tone.

And then, once the drawing was certain, I stopped pushing it at that stage, in that medium, and switched over to watercolor washes to give me a sense of the color palette and how I wanted to paint it:

Simple reds and greens.

Building up:

Acrylics, matte medium, colored pencils...

And then lastly, the little details, before a final coal of matte medium, and spray UV varnish coats...Some serious drying and handling time...

Click the image for larger view

Click the image for larger view

Click the image for larger view

With a custom framing job from my local art store that I am quite pleased to patron. It's great when you can support small, local businesses and receive not only solid work, but a good professional rapport.

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“The Safe Place” alludes to a Native American iteration of Woman as man-kind’s bridge to Nature, how she is humanity’s opportunity to cultivate a close relationship with the Wild, and how through her, the raw self runs free. Men, with their own unique value, take heed of woman’s distinctive bond to Nature in its ever-changing force. 

This piece is an interpretation of the place, the sacred space, where she might need to go to be alone, to be unburdened, uncovered, unseen by her male counterpart, and uncaught, as well. She rests, in the safe place, in the circle, at the foot at a strong, universal icon for the natural world. There is nothing else but the tree, and her.

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* "The Safe Place" is currently showing - February 5th - 28th 2016 - with two other original works of mine as part of a group exhibition showcasing local women artists in the theme of the feminine story - girls and women's empowerment, perspectives, and beauty - #ExtremeLove for #grlsgrlsgrls at The Discerning Eye Center for the Arts - the DECA Building, Lancaster, PA.

Also, art prints of the original painting are available to order HERE

For any questions or comments, contact me directly HERE


In the meantime,
Be well in this winter,

-Mairin-Taj