Painting is one of my favorite ways to relax...
It’s my own little attempt at reflecting the artistry and creativity God has so richly displayed through the colors and scenery of this world.
My favorite style to paint is abstract landscape, inspired by the views around southwest Wyoming. Mountains rise majestically against unending sky, textures and colors harmonizing in breathtaking combinations. Evening especially captures my imagination, with swirling colors and shifting light adding movement and music to the sky, boldly declaring the glory of God and His handiwork. I can’t help but try to capture glimpses of it on canvas!
“It is he who made the earth by his power,
who established the world by his wisdom,
and by his understanding stretched out the heavens.”
– Jeremiah 10:12 ESV
Lately I’ve been experimenting with a mixed media style, which you can see in my most recent painting, Lightly Into Evening. In the moments just before twilight, most of the color surrounds the setting sun — but do you ever look back in the other direction? This piece tries to captures the ephemeral movement of the eastern sky, just before all grows dark for the night.
Lightly Into Evening
My first step was to prep the canvas with an underpainting of cool blues and purples. You rarely see any of that by the end stage, but it helps add depth and direction to the subsequent layers of paint. Then I set about painting the sky with rapid brushstrokes of dioxazine purple, ultramarine blue, and venetian red. The loose style helped mimic the constantly shifting sky, while allowing me to define different layers of clouds and light.
Then I turned my attention to the landscape itself, which I created with hand-painted prints. I frequently enjoy painting more abstract pieces with a gelli plate technique, which lets me play with color and build up multiple layers of texture on a single page. I chose a few finished prints that coordinated with the sky, shaped them into mountains and field, and layered them to reflect the colors of the setting sun. It adds so much depth and dimension to the canvas!
The painting still needed a little something more, and especially some sort of visual path. I added some bronze dots in the sky to direct the eyes and reinforce the idea of light. You can decide whether it reflects stars and moonlight shining down, hopes and prayers going up, or something else entirely!
Finally, every painting needs a title. Something that’s not boringly descriptive (Mountains at Dusk) or confusingly vague (Ultra Violet), but somehow both poetic and evocative. For this piece, I chose the title Lightly Into Evening. Does it reflect the shifting light in the dusk, traipsing lightly from day to evening, or something else? I’d love to know what you think!
Finishing Touches
The beauty — and challenge — of abstract painting is that each viewer perceives it differently. Each person finds different connections and nuances, based on their own real life experiences. And I value that effect! I love encouraging people to see things from different perspectives. But I also like to add one more element of nuance to my finished paintings: music.
Music, like art, can evoke feelings and express ideas that are hard to put into words. In fact, sometimes I actually start a painting based on what a particular musical piece makes me feel or envision. Other times, I look for a piece after I’ve completed the painting. For this scene, I chose Debussy’s Clair de Lune (listen here). I would explain why… but instead, I hope you’ll take a few moments to listen and look at the painting above, and share what it brings to your mind!
What does this painting say to you? How about the music? The title?
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