Savin' a 1,000 Words!

Finally got through this one. I had to use many tools – acrylics, papers, pencil, conte crayon, brushes, fingers, sandpaper, scouring pads, sponges – whatever was near! All were needed to build layers and scrape to show lower layers. I think you could call this ‘mixed media’.

“South Slough Path I” – Mixed Media – 20 x 16 inches

South Slough Path I (Detail)

Detail – South Slough Path I

After a visit to South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR) – some hiking, sketching, noting, and pic-taking – am ready to get started on a fun series of the area.

Studio studies – Begin South Slough series

One more experimental drawing before moving into a series of works dealing with a musical (sounds) theme. This graphite drawing was intended to be abstract but, somehow, nature crept its way into the forefront and took over as river (moving & resting), vegetation, and trees. The moving river is horizontal and the resting waters are the vertical, soft portion.

“River Waterways” - Graphite - 14x11 in.

Tidelands backgrounding

Adding slightly more detail which actually will be more background – especially with the tideland horizontal painting. The vertical ‘backyard forests’ backgrounds are more fore showing through after scratching in trees and brush.

forest background & applying

Finally going to let it feel finished! Thanks for all the positive and constructive input – all very good and applied. Softened the back, left dark trees & reflections; threw in a few ripples, and did some more translucent layering (glazing) over parts of water surface.

“Coos Bay & McCullough Bridge” - Acrylic - 48x36 in.