Thursday, August 13, 2009

Painting the Toes of the Elephant

A week ago, I took a plein air class. Of the many pieces I made using either watercolor or acrylic, it's this one watercolor that I really like. Two acrylics have some potential if I ever get inspired enough to finish them.

I was getting impatient to post this painting so I shot it with a flash because it's very overcast this morning. Thus, the photo is a bit washed out. If I get back to the site, I will add a photo of the tree trunk to the post. Here's a picture of the same tree but from another angle. Notice all the colors in the bark and and the lovely scalloped edges. I love this tree trunk and I'm grateful that I finally got into a zone that allowed me to paint it.

When you examine it closely, nature is very complex. When I looked at the whole tree with all the things that are happening with color and texture and form, I was overwhelmed. In the end, the only way I could begin to capture the feeling of this tree was to zoom in on a small section.

Working in watercolor, this was a lot like drawing with a brush -- the style where you look at the object more than the paper. The trunk reminds me of an elephant's skin, trunk, and legs. The roots seem like elephant feet. When I really connected with the tree and got into my zone, I felt like I was actually painting the tree itself, not the watercolor paper. I fancied myself carefully painting decorations on the toes of a patient elephant.

3 comments:

Randa Dubnick said...

Nice!

Keep painting!

Love, Randi

Martha Wolfe said...

Ooo, you are really good with seeing the colors in nature! Isn't it amazing how they're all there even though we read "gray". I love the name of your post!

Anonymous said...

Hi Mindy,
First..I really like this painting of the 'elephant toes'...

I don't know if you remember me, I am Bobby's age, but I just reconnected with Irene Karten and she showed me your blog...I've enjoyed reading through it and wanted to say hi

stephanie

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails