January Ice Art

What do you do when the temps drop below,

WAY below freezing?

Make icy watercolor art ... OUTSIDE!

Step 1---Dress warmly and pack your

water, brushes, and paints outside.

Step 2---QUICKLY do a watery wash

(while the paper is elevated at an angle...)

Step 3---Drop vibrant color (I use a triad of

pthalo blue red shade and violet and turquoise blue)

Step 4---Watch the wonder of ice crystals

form in the color and spread out.

Step 5---Let dry and get inside to warm up!

This art was done while

it was 14 degrees inside

my studio.

Happy January painting!

Porky Art Thoughts...

“In Wildness is the preservation of the world” is a quote from Henry David Thoreau.In this quote, Thoreau is saying that wildness preserves, not that we must preserve wildness. Wildness was a task for Thoreau to touch and express. “The wild was a project of the self” Jack Turner writes about HDT.
Thoreau understood wildness as a quality, wild men, wild nature, wild friends, wild dreams, wild house cats, wild lieterature. Wildness was associated with other qualities–the good, the holy, the free.
The human connection, the human as nature, you and I, has been largely forgotten I feel. We humans as nature, are a part of the wild. In my own way, I have lived as Thoreau speaks–Wild thoughts, wild laughter, wild song. “Wandering in the wild”, means intuition is at work guidiing you, being free from plans, expectations, duty and more. Being in the moment, wildly in the moment.
For 2009 and beyond there is a need to practice wild self! To preserve the world.

This all I read after the painting developed. As with most art work, the art takes shape before the true meaning sets in and is revealed.

"for the love of nature & art!"

"Wilderness...Preservation of the World" mixed media donation (work in progress) to the Friends of the Porkies.
The 2008 Porcupine Mountain Wilderness State Park Artist-in-Residence 20x 24"
Watercolor, gold gesso, charcoal, graphite, fern, on canvas and masonite with the quotes from the public during the Sept. 2008 presentation on "Wilderness" as well as the famed Thoreau quote: "In wildness, is the preservation of the world".
Signed Limited Edition Prints

AVAILABLE in Feb. 2009!

frog on a BLOG

Mixed Media Work in progress from October 2008 on the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park artist-in-residence stay in August 2008. You can see how the forest is layered and begins to become altered and decays as the human and wildlife elements appear.