A Little Art On The Prairie

I recently had the great pleasure of attending a yearly thank-you reception at the U.W.-Madison Arboretum.
This is a little soiree which is given every year for all the volunteers who contribute time and energy towards keeping this lovely and historic piece of land such a wonderful asset to our community. The volunteers do a wide range of tasks from hands-on seed harvesting to data system work. I have been curating art exhibits in the visitor center's gallery space for several years, since the 2001 show I had there. When I first signed on for this job, I hadn't anticipated how much pleasure I would get from getting to know a whole new group of artists and helping them to find a good venue for their work.

The arboretum has been a constant source of ideas for my work for most of my career. There is a wide variety of ecosystems here, and the Curtis Prairie is perhaps the centerpiece of them all.

This is a detail of a recent painting of Canada Wild Rye from my ongoing series of paintings about grasses. Most of the time I like to take some liberty with titles unless I'm doing botanical-style work. So for this painting's title, I borrowed a line from one of Graeme Edge's (Moody Blues) lyrics "Departure": To Lie In A Meadow And Hear The Grass Sing. Thanks Graeme.

Gone But Not Forgotten

I received my first seed catalog last week. I'm certainly only an amateur gardener, and I seldom order from catalogues. But receiving the first reminder of what's to come from a snow covered mailbox that sits out in the 5° weather is a perennial delight this time of year. This painting of "Forgotten Garden IV" is one of my favorites. In fact I liked it so much that I had prints made of it. At the time I painted this piece, it was more of a metaphor. However, this time of year it takes on tangible meaning for me, and another little sign and reminder of spring.

Solstice

Happy solstice to my friends. Now the daylight will get longer.

End of Days (Almost)

The northern daylight is rapidly diminishing for another winter season. I'm not all that happy painting under artificial light, but it goes with the territory. Still, I will always spend the first hours of a painting in the brightest daylight I can manage.
Some of my friends are aware that I am afflicted with a rare neurological condition called cluster headaches. You can learn more about them here. They have often been connected with this season of shorter days. This circumstance has led my artistic curiousity towards some of the plants I have found to be good natural sources of relief for this condition.
This beautiful flower comes from the Ololiuqui--a member of the morning glory family. It resides naturally in Central America and it's seeds have the ability to positively affect the serotonin receptors in our brains--a very good thing if you happen to have this unfortunate condition. As it turns out, a lot of the plants which have some very great medicial potential, also are quite beautiful to contemplate. I'll post a few more in the future.

Going Through The Change

This painting of a little valley getting ready for another Wisconsin winter expresses my delight in this autumn season. For some, autumn mostly represents the hint of a bleak winter to come. But so far, I haven't been persuaded to abandon the northern climate and colors--I'm hopelessly smitten.

Those Enigmatic Cedars

I recently returned to a favorite place on Lake Michigan where the cedars dominate the landscape. I'm not sure why I have such an attraction to them, although the constant fragrance of them is surely part of it. They can seem almost human in form sometimes--often coupled and entwined. They are incredibly resiliant to the harsh extremes in temperature and the constant winds off the water.


I've painted them in various media, but this pastel version of them on the water's edge is one of my favorites.

Queen Anne's Lace

Although most of my watercolor/watermedia work has been rendered using a very wet style of working, I have also been a "closet" botanical painter--mostly for therapeutic purposes. I have found that when I'm feeling stuck, changing methods for a while can do wonders. Although this little painting of Queen Anne's Lace isn't my first try with this method, it represents an ongoing theme I've been pursuing of plants with medicinal properties.