I’m not sure what category this painting fits in. I was just playing with a photo I took of a pond along the Sibbald Trail. I was also trying to keep painting rather than to let things dry. I also used a little scrapper to dig in to the paper. I put the final result in the category that says, ‘interesting’.
Richard M Haemmerle
Hi, I love it!!! Loose, fresh, interesting shapes everywhere. I’d like to see you do more like this, maybe even a demo????. If I put on my over critical hat, the scrappings keep drawing my eye, but not in a good way. They seem too mechanical in relation to the free and loose look of the rest of the painting. Thanks for sharing. Adios
Richard
Rex Beanland
Hi Richard:
It’s great to get some feedback on this painting since it used a completely unorthodox procedure. I guess often when we go beyond our traditional approach we are in uncharted waters and anything can happen. I’ll put on my critical hat and take a look at those scrappings.
Rex
Shelley
Hi Rex,
I love this painting too. A long time ago when I was still doing archaeology, I worked in this general area (near Moose Mountain), and this painting really evoked that place for me when I saw it. I can almost smell the unusual tamarack and black spruce bogs I worked near when I look at it. The free and loose approach really suits this wild environment. Maybe it’s just my background, but this painting has a sense of the ancient as well. I think you’ve really captured the sensibility of plein air painting in a studio piece.
(and, by the way, did you know that one of Alberta’s oldest archaeological sites was found near the Sibbald Creek?).
Rex Beanland
Hi Shelley:
I didn’t know that about the archaeological site near Sibbald Creek. This is so interesting to me that this painting, which was a real detour into the ‘let’s just let it happen’ zone has interested others. I still don’t know what to make of it except that I found the process very interesting. I love that you can almost smell the black spruce bogs. Maybe there is a lesson here to venture more frequently into the land where the map ends.
Rex