Angel Tree

"Magus"
Oil on Canvas
30" x 40"

In North Carolina there is a tree named "Angel Tree". I've always found trees to be glorious, majestic sculptures. Each one has its own unique character and personality. I am especially called to Oaks. When I lived in California I spent a lot of time on the Santa Rosa Ecological Plateau. Contrary to its name, this beautiful preserve is located off the I-15 somewhere between Lake Elsinore and Temecula and not in Santa Rosa.

The park has hundreds of 400 year old California Live Oaks dancing on grassy hills with walking paths winding through them. There are mysterious shady dells and sunlit patches and knobby areas everywhere with boulders, blue skies and seasonal ponds. The trees dot the landscape like so many dancers celebrating their freedom and the endless horizon.

I spent many hours there hiking, painting and photographing those trees. But now I live where Oaks are rare things and fir and pine dominate the landscape. Although I had hundreds of photos of trees to choose from to assist me in bringing my vision to canvas, I chose the image of  "The
Angel Tree" because its reaching branches made me think of a great magician raising his arms to manifest something beautiful and mysterious into the world.

This painting was in a way a bit of breakthrough for me in that instead of my directing the brush, the painting took over and directed it. It was a kind of push/pull because I don't relinquish control easily. Still, I think the painting won. I called the painting "Magus", because for me, it's magic.

Still Life Painting with an Abstract Feel

The new year started with a whimper for me. I had all kinds of plans to do all kinds of new stuff but it all just seemed to evaporate with a puff of smoke. It may be that I have been focusing on my Magick stuff too much these days. My brain seems to be someplace else and despite lots and lots of meditation and other good mind stuff, my brain seems to have taken a vacation. I believe my teachers would say I need to work on grounding. OK, OK, I’m listening.

"Cityscape", 20" x 31 1/4", Oil on Linen

True, I had a video to produce on my Atelier class and that took some time and energy, but hey, I wasn’t the one editing it. My videographer was. But that’s another story. I’ll post the video after this post. I did manage to start another painting for the new year and I’m pretty satisfied that I came close to my vision for it. Lots of ideas are swimming around my head so maybe all that meditation did something after all.  I wanted to do a still life that had a feeling of abstract work. Well, not fully abstract. I am a representational painter after all. But I always say that a good realist painting has at it’s oily heart a good abstract design. So that’s what I was aiming for. I made the objects larger than they are in life and the painting measures 30 1/4″ by 20″ which is big for a still life.  Anyway, here’s the painting and I hope you like it as much as I do.