New Oil Paintings
My contribution to the Coors Western Art Show and something for Christmas
I am not a product of the Western US, so my painting efforts may be clunky or out of step with what people want or expect, but I strive to present myself honestly even if my offerings are strange.
I feel that this year I may have gone too far with the “different.”
Here I’ll share my 6 paintings for the show and write a little about the thoughts behind them.
I’ll start with the small ones - title followed by image.
Ten Sleep to Meadowlark Lake
This image is from a stunning stretch of road through the Big Horn mountains between Meadowlark lake and the town of Ten Sleep. It is a straightforward landscape.
Trail Shine
If you saw the starting point for this one, you’d wonder how in the world I got to this. I started this one as a problem: make an image with three horizontal bars that are not crossed by a vertical (which is probably what a good designer would do.). My reference was a scrubby hill in mid-day light from a small road in Wyoming.
Below is the kind of video I put out on Instagram. I think it’s interesting.
Jacob’s Rest
Another back road, another field in the Bighorn mountains of Wyoming. The title is taken from the biblical story of Jacob’s ladder. Before his dream/encounter, Jacob used a stone (or stones) as a pillow and later set the place apart as holy. The surface of this painting is good. Velvety. The photo just doesn’t get it.
Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” 17 And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”
Teepee Ring
I have already written about this painting here.
The reference is from Bear Paw Battlefield through which Chief Joseph and his people were fleeing to Canada but got run down by the US government. The faint circle of a teepee (tipi) ring became visible after a fire in the area. It was from an earlier time. Layers of layers. This painting shows some lighter grass indicating where someone had previously walked through. Read more about it here or click the image.
Larimer County
This was hastily done, and I feel may come across as immature. The reference is a roadside in Colorado. I hadn’t seen this plant before (that I know of) and it made a kind of red thicket. The light in the reference was different - softer and less focused on one area, but as I was painting, I came to this. There are things I could have done better, but I ran out of time. A better painter would not have submitted it (“only put out your best work”), but I am what I am. I am mindful of just how many of my paintings are just the roadside wherever I am.
Do Not Go Gentle
This was a fight. I made a little video of the decisions and variations that I was working through and will include it here if I can. Once again, I left the original reference WAAAY behind and ended up somewhere within, somewhere without. Water use in the West. So many layers. Do Not Go Gentle.
Here is what I put in the Instagram post:
Life is a layered thing. I started this work with a simple idea. I was already thinking about the grit it took for anyone to live year-round in many places out West (in any era) and the lengths people go to to make a thing work. The title I thought I’d use was “Sustain” for the way the vapors held in the air before dissipating and for the way it reminded me of the pedal on a piano, the tone gradually fading away AND for the way the water shown here was sustenance AND for the way people fight for claims made -
but when our uncle passed, I was reminded of the grip that will loosen, the contention that will end. “Do Not Go Gentle” is like most other paintings in that it could’ve been a hundred other paintings at any given time, but this is where I stop. The hypnotic sound of the big gun sprinkler might as well be the sound of a clock and we’re all on a deadline.
Thus concludes my offering.
If anyone has questions, just leave a comment.
And now - something for the year’s end …
Through the seemingly endless waves of time -
Nations, kingdoms, cultures, environments, movements -
Through all of the machinations of Mankind -
a promise made in the beginning (Genesis 3:15) would be kept for the redemption of humanity.
That we need redeeming does not seem to be questioned. Even in contemporary American politics,
all sides agree that humans treat one another and the planet poorly.
We mock and scorn,
we dump issue after issue and trash upon trash into and onto all that is made.
We still hide from the usually tender voice of God while yelling at others to confirm our designs.
We roll our eyes at grace when it asks us to consider its ways as we restlessly pursue our own agendas.
The way of peace is overgrown while the way of self-interest is paved and smooth.
Let's be clear: we have enemies within and without. We fight ourselves and we fight each other. Since Genesis we have been embattled.
But for reasons known only to the Father, Jesus entered time as a child in one of the world's crossroads. This act - this unwed virgin mother's birth - was, unbeknownst to mankind,
the keeping of a promise to rescue and redeem us.
If His promise was a flag, it would have looked shredded to our eyes. How many generations of rising and falling, of finding and losing, of living and dying have passed since God spoke in Genesis 3:15? So. Many. Years. So many cries. So many lives.
This promise, this flag, surely looked beaten, soiled, trodden over, and forgotten,
and Mankind heard only occasional faint echoes of His voice singing over us.
Then, out of nowhere, a young girl was told she would bear the Son of God and,
a little while later, six miles south of Jerusalem in a place where animals were kept,
she would give birth to Jesus,
Yeshua.
How blessed the one who bore Him Who Cannot Be Contained.
How blessed the air His lungs breathed first.
How blessed the ears that heard His first cries, and
How that infant's cry signaled the end of sin's tyranny over man.
A savior had come, in flesh disguised.
His tiny hands that wrapped around Mary's fingers
would one day heal the blind
and be nailed to an execution stake.
His tiny feet would one day be washed with tears,
worshipped,
pierced with spikes,
and would one day
crush the serpent's head.
This is the word and work of the Lord.
Click here or the images above to purchase a print. If you cannot afford one, I'll send you one. Contact me.
Christian t-shirts - Sacred Summit
Thank you so much, Jen. Happy Holidays.