immersed...

whilst in Calgary I spent a few quiet moments cropping various photos I had taken of branches trapped in the ice along the shores of our little lake

I sent the image files to a printer and picked up the results a couple of hours later

the results were nothing short of thrilling... 

{the one below is the first one I took, the view that captivated me}

below is the crop... even more beautiful, the frosty branches highlighted and high on the right, a maple samara (commonly, a helicopter) frozen into the ice as well... so much to look at, to think about

since we got home this past Monday I have been busy in the studio, making a mess, having a most enjoyable time

to loosen up and get over the 'I don't know where to start" syndrome, a quick splash of paint and ink on a small piece of card laying on my worktable

then an experiment in texture using tissue paper and cmc glue with a smear of Payne's Grey watercolour paint mixed with my new liquid charcoal

I tried my hand at painting some of the branches trapped in the ice using watercolour but in my usual fashion I worked in a very representational way, trying to capture every detail exactly - on completion, in my also usual fashion, I realized they were not exactly what I had wanted... 

I did the watercolour studies whilst in Edmonton, at our son's house and one of his tenants happened by as I was painting the image below 

 on looking at it, and the reference photo, he said

 "they look like bones"

I replied

"they kind of are - they're the bones of the trees"

I think I've taken that thought a step too far in the painting below, and somehow have lost most of the essence of the branch

in my frustration I took the leftover paint and prepared papers and quickly brushed a large amount of paint on the paper, and then using a new silicon shaper tool I had just bought, I pushed the paint here and there, drawing the tool through the puddles of paint sharply

 "that's the way to make the branches" I thought

better, but the painting below is a step too far the other way

I'll be working on finding some middle ground over the coming days

next up was to partition a sheet of acrylic paper and do quick studies on that

I enjoyed that process very much and am delighted with a few of them which I have set aside; the three remaining will get worked into a bit more and even if nothing comes of them they'll be good practice

this last one is my favourite of all... 

a crop taken from a larger sheet of painted white copy paper:

 acrylic paint scraped, smudged, brushed and pressed on the paper first and then quick dashes of ink made using a stick from the lake

two minutes, more or less, from start to finish

yesterday was collage

torn strips from painted papers, both copy and tissue, as well as a few pieces of handmade (not by me) art paper

this is held together with small stitches and I am now considering what comes next... I want stitched branches, I think... just letting the ideas settle first

I have many other photographs from that day - the one below showing a part of the ice that was very granular, this taken a few days after the original one and the weather had warmed

I love the shadowy effect of the branches underneath the ice

this next one shows some interesting textures and patterning, especially in the lower right

the ice is very textured here, and dirty, almost like mud

more frostiness with lots of delicate branches

I like the messiness of the next one

I'm enjoying myself immensely, trying new things, learning a lot about what works and what doesn't, losing my fear of wrecking things... I have learned over the past year that a lot of what gets in my way is a a fear of ruining things 

it rears it's head when I'm doing something and discover I really like what's happening but don't know quite what to do next - I'm afraid whatever I do I'll get it wrong and ruin everything so I set the project aside in the hopes that someday I'll know just what to do and it will be perfect

I realize now the magic happens as much when you don't know what to do as when you do, maybe moreso

and now I know nothing is wrecked until you stop