ColorChat: "One Leaf", 36 x 48

Inspiration sometimes comes in strange ways . . . I caught the concentric circles emanating from one dropped leaf in a photo taken at Lake Tanglewood, between Amarillo, Texas and Palo Duro Canyon State Park. The circles radiated over the reflections of blue sky and colorful, tangled vines growing beside the lake. Streaks of sunlight came through the leaves and settled on the surface of the water. As I painted this piece, I came to recognize an inspirational metaphor in the concentric circles and the rays of light from the direction of the one dropped leaf. The metaphor was originally unintended and unconscious in nature, but once I saw it, I ran with the idea. I've read that the unconscious knows more than the conscious mind, and I'm coming to believe it.

Train Your Brain

Inside each of our skulls, we have a double brain with two ways of knowing. As each of our hemispheres gathers in the same sensory information, each half of our brains handles the information in different ways. Left-brain functions are logical, analytic and verbal, while right-brain functions are visual, spatial, intuitive, creative and non-verbal. Today, educators are increasingly concerned with the importance of intuitive and creative thought. Nevertheless, school systems in general are still structured in the left-hemisphere mode. The right brain goes largely untaught. Half a brain is better than none, but a whole brain would be better.
Gaining conscious access to the right-brain mode of thinking is vital to learning to draw (and create art), but it has implications for the field of education in general as well. People from diverse fields of knowledge, when aware of the full functional potential of both sides of their brains, can enhance both thinking modes, thereby increasing their personal growth.

Betty Edwards
Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain
(paraphrased)

Plein Air Paintings

The works below were created outside in the open air, where the artist heads to learn from the greatest landscape teacher of all, nature itself. Painting outdoors helps one develop a sensitivity to nature and a visual memory that will inform studio works. Plein air paintings are usually small and have a spontaneous quality about them because the artist must work quickly. There are only about two hours before any given scene will change dramatically because of the moving sun and resulting changes in shadow and light patterns.

ColorChat

"One Leaf", 36 x 48

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