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untitled painting, 11-05-12b
collage, mixed media |
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| tree trunks and ducks are collaged |
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| the scout… |
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| detail of leaves |
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| detail of tree trunks: collage, watercolor, ink, litho crayon & tusche |
Often when I work in my sketchbook, a scene takes shape before any sort of narrative content is added. In this case, you can imagine, the forest was created first and the ducks were added last. I started out with these long rectangles of bond paper with ink blotted on them. Once glued down, I started adding the brown and other neutral tones that formed the indeterminate depths of the forested space. For a while, as the cheap sketchbook paper buckled, it was unclear whether the collage paper would be the tree trunks or the other way around. The buckled paper bulged out like 3-d trunk-like forms. I was tempted. I decided to go with my original idea and started drawing in the detail of the tree bark and the layers of vegetation and the leaf-littered ground plane. This set the atmosphere. And then I knew why I had been drawing real ducks all summer!
One, two, three little white ducks, lost or adventurous carefully finding their way through the dangerous forest!
What will become of them? Will they meet other fowl or ferocious fanged foxes or aloof rabbits? Where are they going to?
I don't know. Do you??
I don't know either, but I can have a guess...
ReplyDeleteMaybe they're looking for the perfect pond they've heard so much about, with crystal clear refreshing water
I like the gloomy atmosphere and the lightness the ducks bring in. The whole painting is wonderful.
Thanks for your suggestion Poet Bear. Something with the sound of rushing or babbling water might be nice. I imagine some ducky egomania has led them astray and now the wisdom of the adventure is in doubt. Maybe the day started pleasant enough but the wind has picked up and it's gotten gloomy. These are ok but a bit obvious… I hope for some elusive quality that will only make sense at the end of the tale. We shall see.
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