the beautiful below


the_beautiful_below
the beautiful below
encaustic
12 3/4 x 24 inches

I completed this painting this past month and it is my largest encaustic painting to date. Yes, I know, it is not that large, but for me it is. And I have to say that I have really been enjoying working larger. There is more room to explore with. More room for risk.

All paintings are much better in person than on the screen, but this is especially true of this one. There is a lot of variation in the dark “ground” that just could not be captured.

The title comes from a piece of writing that my husband wrote many years ago that I have kept in a journal I made. I often refer to this book for my titles.

How is it October already? September was filled with trips out of the city and into the wilderness for my family. Our last trip was to my beloved Seattle, but we spent most of our time on the other side of the mountains in a tiny town called Winthrop. It was so beautiful there. Have you been someplace where the landscape is so beautiful that it makes you breathless or on the verge of tears? Ok, maybe that’s overly dramatic, but at the very least it made me want to be a landscape painter. I felt so inspired by the beauty in front of me. I just want to capture the essence of that landscape through paint to keep that feeling with me.

I love the foggy, dark green of the Puget Sound which is west of the Cascade Mountains. The east side of the mountains is completely different, but just as beautiful. It is drier over here and it reminded me of the southwest a little bit, which is another landscape that speaks to me. The mountains and hills were a golden ochre, the skies so blue, and the air so crisp. Just what I needed.


mt_p_start

Mt. Patterson, Winthrop, WA


mt_p_top2


I am more than ever convinced that the only possible way to interpret the scenes hereabout is through an impressionistic vision. A cold material representation gives one no conception whatever of the great size and distances of these mountains. ~Ansel Adams

16 Comments

  1. Hi Bridgette
    How very exciting to stretch the picture plane..12 x 24 is a great size no matter what the medium…The piece is rich and provocative…alluring.

    I LOVE your rounded mountain landscape photos…I want to lie there against the Mother’s orenda…my ear listening to her dreaming her next field of flowers, wandering marmot, blanket of snow.

  2. Beautiful piece. It’s lovely you take titles from your husband’s writing. Love the meshing of minds. and yes, I have seen nature so beautiful I could weep.

  3. Wow, I can just feel the life in the darkened earthy layer of your “beautiful below” And then to see your hillside and to see it the way you do. I am so glad you had a wonderful visit to the Pacific Northwest. I live much farther south, but next to the Cascade mountains as well. I wish you a weekend of sunshine and peace. roxanne

  4. This piece speaks to me of the quiet workings of nature that go unnoticed, but are always there, the deep underground secret places of the earth. It’s a beautiful, thoughtful piece. And yes, I have seen landscapes so beautiful they overwhelmed me with emotion.

  5. beautiful piece, bridgette. the part you wrote about finding titles in your husband’s writing made me smile. that’s such a wonderful, special thing. 🙂

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