Category Archives: Articles on travel
Travel related articles
The Art of the Night Sky
My son and I had a talk about mortality, the sadness of the situation and how we should appreciated every day and those around us. We both left the park with a sadness but a feeling of hope, the outpouring of love and concern from the mourners and the idea that we need to tell the people we know that we care before they leave us. Sadly, she wasn’t there to see the love and the concern but with the beauty of the sunrise and the presence we both felt, I almost feel she was looking down and she had found some peace.
Art by Gordon: This is one of those images that got lost for a …
This is one of those images that got lost for a …: This is one of those images that got lost for a long time, kind of faded and darkened and than was given new life. I realize now what mo…
This is one of those images that got lost for a long time, kind of faded and darkened and than was given new life. I realize now what most effects me about the night sky, it is the silence of stars, the indifference of the universe to our tiny insignificant figures. On a camping trip with my son I recently captured the night sky just before we turned into to our tents and the silence and the majesty of light in the pitch blackness capture both of our attention. We both ended up laying down in a river bed and watching the stars, I think I will never look at the stars the same again.
After that experience of listening to the intense silence of the sky and the realization of both our place in the universe and the fact that the sky at night is a multi-dimensional landscape I have not only wanted to learn more about the stars, I’ve also improved the insight I have on painting them. I start with the background the stars, the stars you barely see and move from those to the more obvious stars in the foreground-this gives the sky a depth just like a landscape. I intend on getting the stars to twinkle off of themselves-as the eyes goes through the image, stars appear and others disappear as the eye focuses on the dimensions of the stars.
The second image is a study of the lights on the water-it is more of the reflections rather than the stars. I got this idea years ago and it has only now come to completion. The inspiration usually takes longer than the actual painting it seems.
I intend on doing a very large scene of the night sky-one that maybe covers a wall-nothing like painting on a great wall-it’s very empowering and not at all intimidating-okay depends on my mood in any given day.
I have sketched this image out so many times and have added and subtracted from the original idea. My main focus for this image is the depth, the road takes you back into the sunrise. Its a scene I see all the time as I drive around the country in north Texas.
It was a hard transition from New Jersey to Texas, the landscape is totally different, I have had to find beauty in things that are different from where I grew up. As you can see no water and no night sky which have both become my specialties over the years. I wanted to concentrate on the details in the foreground and let the viewer be able to get lost in the sky and the field in the background.
Even the colors are a bit of a departure from my standard work, this series is kind of a jumping off point as I am trying to enlarge the scope of what I paint and not be bogged down by not being as familiar with the image or techniques but the payoff has been a fresh spontaneous approach to my painting, the closest I have ever painted to en plein air. I have really enjoyed this new series and feel like it is a stepping stone to what I am really interested in painting and perfecting. Stay tuned, many new and different images are already finished and about to be revealed. Thanks for reading.
Detail of Sunflowers |
First of all, this is not my photograph, my phone battery happened to run down on the day we went on Tenkiller Lake in Oklahoma. So this is my sons image from his phone. It was another amazing evening watching the colors of the sky change and getting skunked again by the illusive smallmouth bass-I’m eager to get back to the largemouth, a more cooperative species of bass-that’s my story any way.
So on this lake, I was amazed with the clarity of the water-you could see to the bottom and the color of the water was deep blue to green getting more vibrant blue as the sun faded into the horizon. We were in a perfect place for the smallmouth, deep areas under rocky ledges, giant slabs of stones in deep cold water areas and yet nothing. I swear they’re laughing at us down there but I digress.
It was still an incredible evening, we watched as the sun went down and as he continued to fish from shore I photographed the trees as the sun made shapes and silhouettes of the branches. After a long time of just enjoying being there we stayed in a cabin and realized we had bought too much fish-all in all a wonderful night and even though we didn’t catch a damn thing-the time we had in nature, just kayaking and enjoying the moment-it was a priceless perfect trip.
When I returned from the trip I painted an image to show just how clear and amazing the water was, I was impressed with the colors of the autumn leaves floating across the electric blue water. I studied the depth and clarity of the water and from sketches and photos created the third in my new series of paintings.
Turner Falls, Oklahoma, artbygordon.com |
Previous Painting of Petit Jean artbygordon,com |
Candles
Poem 4-12-13- a poem a day first in the series