Journal : Tiny Landscapes

I have stayed home from my downtown studio for over a week. Of course I have worked on my online courses, email, and I have hooked.

I have made six small landscapes each 8 inches by 8 inches. Over time I have made over 100 of these. Sometimes I think that I have made every angle possible than I remember that landscape, colour,  light, and perspective make this impossible. 

First of all the landscape itself has so many angles bumps, styles and possibilities that there is no way I could ever get closed to getting bored. I just have to seek out new possibilities . I cannot rely on what I see everyday. We get used to looking at things the same way. Photography is a great resource for this. You get to see the landscape from different perspectives.

Then of course there is colour, which can be dictated by the time of year or even the time of day. Colour is another infinite possibility. The problem is we are atttracted to the same palettes over and over again. We need to stretch ourselves, not to palettes we do not like, but to palletttes that intrigue us. Sometimes new materials do this.

Light is another factor that makes hooking landscapes interesting. Of course this is just another word for colour on some levels. But the light creates a tone for the whole piece, small as it may be and dictates the tones of every colour you will use. John O’Donohue, the Irish poet and Philosopher, and a favorite writer of mine, said , you can never see the landscape twice because the light is constantly painting it. I love the infinite possibilities this way of looking at things gives you.

Finally Perspective also changes how you can hook these tiny landscapes. Are you on top of the mountain, or sitting at the foot of it. The view will be completely different either way. You can reimagine every little rug you make simply by putting yourself at another vantage point. 

Isn’t something? The idea of infinity applied to tiny landscapes. I think I just went through this idea as if it were a mathematical proof! 

Now I am back to the frame. With so many possibilities. Oh joy.