Breathing In Inspiration

Where is your favorite place to be?    Close your eyes, can you see it?  Feel it?  

I have a favorite place in Big Cottonwood Canyon, Utah.   It is a spot where the river rushes over rocks, surrounded by tall trees and surrounded by a tall wall of rocks.   I rarely see it any more....but the image is set in my mind.   Where in nature do you feel peace?  Inspired?

 All around us are images that bring inspiration....that open the mind and tells stories.  Take a moment in your day to breath these images in and then let loose and create.   Let your work tell a story, evoke an emotion, or cause the viewer to ask questions, and be curious as to why you did what you did.

If you looked closely to the piece of art that I created in the video, you would have noticed an image of a rose in the top right hand corner.  Why did I place that rose there?   Before I answer that question, let me take you through the steps that I did to create the piece.

How did I create the project in the video?

I started this project on a 6 x 6 canvas that I painted with a layer of gesso.

Next, I began to collage pieces of painted tissue paper onto the canvas.  As I layered the paper, I soon began to notice that the edges were creating a shape that was very familiar to me....a mountain ridge.  With an acrylic pencil, I drew the outline and filled the shapes in with the colors of blue and green. 

Why did I choose these colors?  Blues and greens are colors that evoke peace, rest and tranquility.  I was also interested in creating some contrast between the mountains and the sky. The colors of blue and green stood out against the yellow, pink and orange sky creating enough contrast that they become a focal point for the eye. 

Looking at the the mountains and hills, I imaged a field of flowers covering the bottom portion of the art piece.   So, I began to collage layers of flowers that I had painted on my tissue papers filling in the bottom portion of the canvas.  I began to use a white Gelly Roll pen to draw in the details of the flowers, but I quickly removed the white because I want to give the viewer an impression of flowers growing in a field below and keep the piece of art lose and free.

I mentioned that up in the right top corner is a rose and a cluster of leaves.  Why would I place these there? Sometimes, the top right corner is used to draw the viewer’s eye, or to balance the composition. The elements placed there can help guide the viewer through the artwork or complete the narrative. 

For me, the rose symbolizes the city in which I currently live in... Tyler, Texas.  The city of Tyler is known as the "Rose Capital of America", or some say the "Rose Capital of the World".  Both of these are nicknames that the city earned from a long history of rose production, cultivation, and processing.

Therefore, in this piece of work I have shown a piece from my past and a piece from my present.  Both bring me comfort, beauty and a sense of peace.

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