11.23.09 ~ spirit note ~ cityscape

09 spirit note 25 — cityscape
— watercolor
— copyright Dawn Chandler 2009

Spirit Note 25 started with a circular teabag in the foreground. When I cut into it to remove the dried tealeaves, I created a little flap, and folded that back when I glued it down on the watercolor paper. When bringing in paint and pencil, I decided to repeat the tea bag shapes — the circle with that moon-like orb to the left, and then the domed rectangle shape of the flap in that tracery of black mesh.

No real rhyme or reason to this one — just playing with shape and line and color. I hadn’t intended for it to be about a city, but when it was completed, a city is what I saw. If nothing else, there’s a suggestion of distant smoke stacks.

I do like the way the black mesh-like form is off kilter. I usually compose my art on a fairly strict horizontal/vertical grid. I’ve done that here in the underlying painting, but threw in an added layer of interest with the quarter-turn of the mesh, which is echoing the shape and angle of the flap on the tea bag.
There's a clunkiness to this piece that appeals to me.

11.22.09 ~ north country — last light [complete painting]

09 weekly 12x12 — #05 — north country — last light [complete painting]
— 12"x12" — oil on panel
— copyright Dawn Chandler 2009

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Early evening, just as the sun was about to drop behind Baldy Mountain, I found myself bush-whacking up from the Maxwell Turnaround to the Baldy Skyline Trail and eventually on into Head of Dean. The evening light was that sharp piercing golden orange kind that slants in and casts everything in its path in a warm glow. The shadows turn from purple to blue to black, as the sun, to the west, finally dips below the ridge-line.
I am pausing here from my hike, and turn around to look back behind me, across the Ute Creek Valley, and on to the distant folds of the Middle Country.


This painting is based on a similar view from the same hike that inspired my Daily Painting #51, done in watercolor pencils and completed this past spring.

11.21.09 ~ north country — last light [glimpse 03]

09 weekly 12x12 — #05 — north country — last light [detail 3 — painting in progress]
— 12"x12" — oil on panel
— copyright Dawn Chandler 2009
What appear as abstract stripes in this snippet of the larger painting, is actually summer evening light slanting in through the evergreens and dappling the long whispy grasses with warm light. This kind of dappled light always draws me in to a scene; I love to paint it.
Tomorrow I'll reveal the whole painting.

11.20.09 ~ north country — last light [glimpse 02]

09 weekly 12x12 — #05 — north country — last light [detail 2 — painting in progress]
— 12"x12" — oil on panel
— copyright Dawn Chandler 2009
What we're seeing here is a small detail of the larger painting — here, a glimpse at the distant mountains and, in the foreground, a few branches of an evergreen tree catching the last light of day. This tree was the most challenging part of the painting for me. Trying to convey that warm, evening light on a green tree without making the tree appear diseased and dying from blight was tricky. But here is where my mind is tripping up my eyes: I know the tree is green, but it appears almost orange. I need to trust my eyes and paint what I see, not what I know. After several starts and stops, I finally remembered the wisdom of that and focused on painting the tree as I saw it: swatches of color.

11.19.09 ~ north country — last light [glimpse 01]

09 weekly 12x12 — #05 — north country — last light [detail 1 — painting in progress]
— 12"x12" — oil on panel
— copyright Dawn Chandler 2009

Just when I thought this painting was done, I ended up going back into it and pretty much redoing the whole thing. It was just too dark all around. It seemed true to the photo, but unless a light was shining directly upon it (at which point it looked lovely), it just seemed to dissolve into shadow. I considered the photo a long hard time and decided that my values in the painting were off by a key; everything — all of the highlights and medium values — were just a little too dark.
So I started in here at the top, lightening the sky and the shadows of the distant mountains, and the painting began to sing....

11.17.09 — spirit ring — removing the door and stepping through

09 spirit ring 24 — removing the door and stepping through
— watercolor
— copyright Dawn Chandler 2009

In the midst of landscape and soap posts, it’s time for another Spirit Note.
This one nearly got away from me. I wasn’t happy with it, so started scribbling in with lots of black watercolor pencil.. That packed a reviving punch of contrast.
Funny, any time there’s bunch of color outlined or punctuated with black, I am reminded of stained glass; this piece is no different.
There’s a circular teabag in the lower right corner, which I covered with gold paint. I note the teabag and the yellow center of the ring are two circles of about the same circumference. As I consider this piece, it looks almost as though the gold circle at one time plugged the yellow circle — as though it were a door that has been removed, or a stopper that’s been dislodged. Like someone yanked it out and put it to the side.
Hence the title.

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