Speaking of Art Blog

Moving In, pastel, 11x14"

Here is my latest pastel painting, of a Prothonotary Warbler bringing some sticks and brush to add to a nest it is building inside this nest box (which was specially made and installed to attract Prothonotary Warblers in the marsh at the Indiana Dunes State Park). These warblers are stunningly bright and beautiful and what a treat it was for me to catch sight of this one moving in.

Lately I have been fascinated with depicting the juxtaposition of soft feathers against hard wood grain in my paintings. Here are my other recent examples of this:

Timeless Beauty, pastel, 11x14"

Nesting Season, pastel, 12x12"

Mourning Meditation, pastel, 14x11"

What I find interesting is that in some of my paintings the colors of the feathers match the colors in the wood, yet they have totally different textures. So how do I convey that difference?  It’s actually not so much with color; it’s more with shapes and lines. Wood grain has long continuous lines, some wavy and some straight, but lengthy.  And then there are delightfully quirky knots in some wood.  Birds don't have knots. Bird feathers are curvy and short with little shapes and sections of color that sometimes have fuzzy edges. And as soon as we see bird feet and a beak, we know it’s a bird and we know that feathers are soft. So, I’ve had fun showing off the contrast between these 2 elements.

I have always felt that wood has character.  I probably got that feeling from growing up with a carpenter father. My dad built the home I grew up in as a child and to this day the smell of cut wood reminds me of my dad’s carpentry handiwork. I have always felt that wood grain is evidence of a tree’s personality long after the tree has been cut down and then fashioned into a piece of furniture or railing or another useful item.

I use both a charcoal pencil and pastel sticks when I depict something wooden in my paintings. I go back and forth between drawing some lines with my charcoal pencil and then filling in color in between the lines. My progress takes on a rhythm, a dance of sorts, between the 2 art media as I build up the layers. Sometimes I press hard with my pencil and sometimes I barely touch the paper with it, letting the pastel color do all the talking. I find it to be great fun to coax the wood’s personality out onto the paper’s surface. And then of course each bird has its own lively charm that I accentuate.

I find both textures, feathers and wood grain, to be challenging to represent but also very gratifying. I am sure I will continue to pair them up, the soft and the hard, in some of my future paintings. Nature is grand. There’s an endless supply of intriguing subjects to explore. As I have said in the past, “Nature says it best. I just embellish the tale.”