i haven't usually any shortage of things to think about... pondering things, that make me consider not just the world around me but also my place in it and understanding of it
this week three more were added to the pile
shrub and the ensuing stump removal have been a big focus this summer... last week as i was sawing large roots from one of the stumps i had a rather startling experience
the stump had been removed from the ground at least two weeks prior but the larger roots were still rather soft and flexible; as I sawed my way through one of the largest i noticed a faint pink tinge which deepened as i got closer to the centre of the root by which time it was quite ruby-coloured; in minutes the colour was entirely gone with not the faintest hint it was ever there
seems perhaps "the surge" before death, (sometimes referred to as terminal lucidity), is maybe not just something for human beings...
when the root came free i laid it down on the growing woodpile and as it rolled over i noticed a small web of fine "root-threads", pure white and in the shape of a tree
so much symbolism in these two events they feel like startling messages from the plant itself and not ones to be taken lightly
a few days later, an afternoon in the studio with more mark-making using charcoal in the works, i was determined this time to just make random marks
it seemed to be going well, turning the paper this way and that, trying different ways of working but after 15 minutes there was yet another landscape appearing on the page - tried a few more things to break free of that but again, the new marks, in combination, just enhanced the overall impression
deciding there was no point in fighting it i took the eraser to the sky area to lighten it a bit and added a few more lines to what appeared to be a grassy area to define it a bit more and there it was...
the last thinking thing was spurred on by a photo a friend in the yukon sent me... they were on a boating trip on bennett lake and the white pass train came by so she snapped this image of it
it's a tourist train now, running from skagway, alaska as far as carcross, yt along with a few points in between but until the early 1980s the train came all the way to whitehorse
i could never understand the colour scheme though... I thought the yellow and green a hideous combination and often wished they would go back to the dark red/burgundy and black i remembered as a child
when Charmaine sent me this photo I understood immediately... it's the colour of the water, and of the land, the greenery in sunlight
it's nature's perfection
4 comments:
your charcoal piece is stunning Jillayne x
The tale of the ruby red appearing in the roots of the tree is so poignant... a final flush before death.. maybe the soul of the tree being released? I don't know but I often wonder about the 'humanness' of trees ever since I read The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben. Not human, of course, but such complex and seemingly sensitive beings with traits and 'emotions' that do almost seem human. Or perhaps that is an injustice to the trees! What a strange experience it must have been to witness that rosiness appearing and then fading.
Any they say things happen in threes... your charcoal drawing that appeared of it's own will on your page is stunning .. I think your drawings that have a habit of turning to landscapes speak volumes.
And as soon as I saw that little train I thought how well it blended with its surroundings... How we change our perceptions in an instant when all becomes clear.
Such a thoughtful post.
Yes, the train would look thoroughly unhappy in a town, but out in the countryside - it belongs!
Sometimes I think our minds refuse to be forced into a box where we'd like them to be which perhaps could explain your creating landscapes despite your best efforts not to. I've found over the years that attempting to do something and having it go wrong over and over is my subconscious telling me I need to relax and just go with it. When I was in the doll making phase I would try to make a doll succumb to my wishes and pretty much every single time it would end up being something entirely different than I had thought it would. I suspect drawing is the same.
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