"February Thaw" - oil on panel - 9x12 © Marc R. Hanson '09
I haven't been exercising anything lately but my will to rid myself of another winter bug that I picked up last weekend. I've done that now. This is the first day that I've been painting since Friday, can't believe it. Good thing is that there can't be too many bugs left that I haven't had already this year... maybe I'm safe now???
I spent today working on a larger studio painting which should be finished in a few days. I'll post that one on my 'other' blog when I'm done. After working on that one I decided to paint what's happening outside right now. For the last few days we've had a major thaw, leaving us with almost no snow left AT ALL. Yesterday I felt good enough to get in the car and just drive around looking at what the countryside looked like sans snow cover. I was moved by just how rich the color was despite everything that I was looking at being either dead or dormant.
In the spirit of my reason for this blog, I opened my mind up to absorbing as much of the landscape as I could, it's mood, color, atmosphere. I would have painted on location if I felt better. Or at least photographed what I was looking at on the drive. I did neither. I'm happy that I didn't. I feel that this piece really captures my memory of what I was seeing. It's a summary of the impressions left by all that I saw.
It's not a true "imagination" painting I guess... Hey... there are no rules!!!
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17 comments:
well marc I cant tell you how much this looks like what I have been seeing!!!!!! i love the richness the darks involve and the warmth in those thawing greys! sweet!
B
MUD!!! Love that mud color.
Thanks Ben. Where the ***** did that snow go so fast? The only thing missing in the fields right now are huge flocks of waterfowl. I do like that aspect of spring melting.
Hey... See you tomorrow night. Are you set for what you're going to paint?
set I am a sunset 18x20 I am thinking.
B
I love this simple but elegant landscape - and I agree with the other commenter about the great color of the mud.
Very nice, indeed. Oh - and I had that bug too... still creeping about in my throat at times...
Hi Marc,
Just lovely, and the others also are all wonderful! I'll try and drop in here regularly. Love this new direction of exploration of yours!
Glad to read you are feeling better! I've missed your posts.
Excellent color memory in this one, I would have thought it had been painted en plein air by looking at it.
Hi Patrice... Thank you. I wouldn't want to be walking in that mud, but the color for painting it is great!
Julianne... Nice to hear from you. I apologize for not replying to your email yet. I will, but want to take the time it deserves.
Thanks for the comments.
Thanks Solveg?
Hi Kim... thank you. I surprised myself at how much retention I had when painting this. I guess looking at grass, mud and tree lines enough eventually soaks in. That's the question my mother always had... "When is it going to soak in?" ;-)
I don't remember getting so many 'bugs' a season when living in California? But maybe I was did and just didn't care??? Anyway, it's part of being cooped up inside too, not really the cold per se.
Now I'm fired up for spring.
Sorry guys- nop can't relate one bit.
I'm from Florida .I've been painting seagrape trees
And oranges by the sea this week.
I can relate to having the bloody flu though.
This is the worst year for it. Glad you're feelin better marc.
OH, that was a HUGE compliment, Marc! And, I just came back to see this painting again. Now that we've had sun, I can allow the greatness of this painting's textures to pull me in and get stuck there, happily!
: )
Really.
Any time someone captures the essence of anything, including the thickness of that week's atmosphere and gooiness of that week's ground, that person - you - deserves awe and applause. You got it!
Here's awe!
And, here's applause!
: )
Thanks for being so true to atmosphere, always!
Seagrapes??? Tony??? What the heck are those?
Oranges by the sea???
This sounds good.
I hope that you're feeling better now.
Thanks Solveg. Your compliments always seem like they're more than one deserves. But thanks.
I can't believe it's been so long since I've been back to this post.... time flies.
Nope. You deserve them. Definitely. I hate flattery. I don't participate in it.
: )
I like the simplicity of your landscapes. I'm struggling with landscapes right now so yours are quite inspiring.
Marc, I know this was posted ages ago, but I have a question for you....is the texture in the sky....well, throughout the painting really.....are the brush stokes in the ground, underpainting.... or in the painting...or all three?
I really love this one, I saw it ages ago and keep going back to it.
Maggie
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