Winter Oaks Painting

Inspired by the first snow falling on lingering ruddy oak leaves. This painting incorporates materials from the landscape: natural dyes from walnut, sumac, and oak, along with wildfire charcoal, dirt, iron rust, and acrylic paint. At just the right viewing angle, the ghostly shapes of real oak leaves are barely perceptible, then vanish into the canvas. This painting pairs nicely with “Winter’s Eve”, listed separately. My Fermata-series paintings are quiet sanctuaries for personal reflection. Painting is my antidote to troubling times, my way of contemplating the nuanced gray areas neglected by our increasingly polarized society. I create fields of light and darkness by staining raw canvas with layer upon layer of diluted acrylic pigments that soak into the fabric. These subtle layers of pigment reveal themselves gradually after several minutes of viewing, bringing the dimension of time to the two-dimensional surface. I also blur the distinction between object and ground to create an ambiguity of space. My intent is to create simple but elusive paintings that beckon a hectic world to slow down, pause, and reflect. DETAILS *Natural dye and acrylic stain on raw canvas built up in many thin layers. The stain technique soaks into the canvas, creating a naturally velvety matte surface with neither the glare of glossy paint nor the deadening of matte paint. *There is no need to frame this painting since the edges are the same background/border color with process artifacts of the underlying colors used to stain the canvas. *Signed on the rear canvas margin along with year and artist's inventory database number for provenance.