Bright Path Shining

post by aNna

I began this 30” x 40” oil sketch inspired by the phantasmagorical painting by Henri Rousseau, “Tiger in A Tropical Storm, Surprised.” Sorry that I can't reproduce it here for you to see, due to copyright. After loosening up a bit with some Chardonnay, this too began by preparing with academic issues (sketch, proportion, color recipes, underpainting, etc.) that require some skill but mostly a rudimentary learning of some basics that anyone could master …I felt ready to go all in. After a few hours I was dissatisfied with the direction:

I turned to another deep inspiration: Willem and especially Elaine deKooning. Superimposing the two styles together eventually resulted in my own abstract landscape. The title came about approximately by studying the finished piece for clues. The dark lines and marks resemble a crooked path, but the white scumbled paint (technique of dragging or scrubbing rather dry paint over a dry area) suggested a bright, holy or halo-ed effect. The spirituality of a landscape that "shines" spoke to me. The "paths" could also represent trees, the orange near the top of the painting represents the sun.

When turned horizontally, the painting resembles an undersea "seascape" depicting the kelp farms of the northern Pacific Ocean near where I live. The painting is wired for either vertical or horizontal orientation.