Shenandoah

My daughter, Sara, and I have recently been listening closely to the music of our friend Rhiannon. The timeless old folk song, "Shenandoah," is a particular favourite. So one beautiful evening, when my assistant Samantha and I had a few hours to spare, we set about making a short video using the song. It's a sentimental tale about a young man who must depart from the daughter of an Indian chief. The video's a bit self-indulgent but, as in the act of plein air painting, a sense of timelessness overcame us as we lingered together on the lonely river.

Painting as Tribute

A tribute, according to the Oxford Dictionary, is "a thing said, done or given as a mark of respect." When you think of it, all of nature and a great deal of what mankind has done are worthy of tribute. Further, when you consider appreciation of beauty or history or even the possibility of life enhancement, our art takes on greater meaning and more power.

Cuckoo

Last week I was trying to advise a young lady who wanted to break loose from the landscape persuasion. "It's not even me," she said, holding up a tree. "I want to do something fun, imaginative, whimsical, goofy, cuckoo." Cuckoo, I told her, is serious business. Introducing incongruity, surprise and nuttiness is not easy.

The Nude As Landscape

"The Nude as Landscape" came about in a normal studio session. The painting was conceived as a figure study, in acrylic on canvas, but as the work proceeded the landscape-like contours of the human body suggested a broader landscape. The female figure became surrounded in air as well as light, and a new idea was born. This "second-generation" thinking happens when normal orders of procedure are reversed, causing new angles to be discovered.

Changing the Light

Several days ago in the Queen Charlotte Islands I was faced with a particularly flat day. Overcast and grey, it wasn't even foreboding. Not much was wrong with the small canvas I painted down on the beach, but during the windup strokes I realized it needed something more. Changing the light is a painter's prerogative. Remembering the sunset of the previous evening--and the rain squalls passing through it--I thought, "Why not?"

Lake O'Hara

Sara and I were guided above Lake O'Hara to a remote ridge known to the "Opabin Shale-Splitters." This was where MacDonald and his friends painted in the summers of 1924 to 1930. We could well see the appeal. Patterns of rock and snow in all directions. Light. Shadow. Atmosphere. Dramatic mountains all around. Lots of places to sit.

Forest Spirit

I needed to get out of the studio. We jumped in the car and disappeared into the local forest. I set up and made a little painting while Michelle set up and made a little movie. " Forest Spirit " is another of those Shoulder Clips that we have shown you before , but this one is in real time, a bit languorous and laid back. For her first flick, I think she caught the feeling. It takes six minutes.