Beyond Wildlife- A Series of Mini Oil Pastel Landscapes

Beyond Wildlife

A Series of Mini Oil Pastel Landscapes

It may not seem like it, but I DO paint things other than birds and wildlife. In fact, until recent years I almost exclusively worked in portraits or figurative work. I really can’t explain the shift, except with the notion that change is the nature of life. I recently took a short break from wildlife to create a mini landscape in a vertical orientation. Something quick, something different, something filling. I became addicted to working in the narrow framing of a vast scene and on the bite size canvas that forced expressive strokes and letting go of detail. Within the week I had a pile of mini landscapes.

As the series evolved, I began to be more and more obsessed with the skies than the land, skyscapes of large billowing storm clouds. Maybe it was because I was stormy. Not stormy in the dark and somber sense, maybe on some days, but in the all of the multitudinous personalities of a storm. The tension of something building in the distance, the beauty of wild freedom, the smell of rain-soaked earth, the comfort of standing in the rain. For a days all I could think about was storm clouds. Gray masses blanketing the sky, ominous dark towers, fluffs building in the distance.

As quickly as it began, the sky reappeared and it was back to business as usual, birds, bees and beetles.