Category Archives: Articles on travel

Travel related articles

Rememberance

I watched the clouds swirling
I watched the light in rich ambers and greys
She smiled
I heard the sound of guitar chords
And voices somber
I was not part of the group
An outsider
But I could feel the pangs of sadness
A rich atmosphere
As thick as the clouds
That parted ways
Watched the final embers of light fade
And the balloons
Blue and red rose weightless and beautiful
I saw your picture
You were an angel,
So much hope in eyes
So hopeless
The balloons rose into the clouds
The warm golden light
Touched everything
And I would almost hazard a guess
You were forgiven
I felt your presence
As the cool breeze gave way
To a golden sky
I watched the candles light
I watched the warmth spread
People hugged each other
They reflected across the lake
Your absence was felt
Even by those who never were lucky enough
To know you
I felt peace across the water
I felt silence like a whisper
And above me as the light dispersed
That quiet air lingered
I talked to my son
He felt it too
Said the words we all should say
Sadly watched that last balloon
Rise and fade away…..

The Art of the Night Sky

The art of the night sky
For years I’ve been painting subject matter that inspire me, most often glorifying the natural world. In the last four or five years I have come to specialize in two particular subject matters, water as a regular staple-its’ clarity and reflective quality and more recently the silence and mystery of the night sky.
I think both venues are mysterious in their own way and I think that is the aspect of nature that inspires me. I aim to capture the quiet, peaceful moments that are haunted by some intangible presence, those less than comfortable shadows where we are intrigued as much as we are unnerved. I aim at capturing the silence that speaks louder than words and the awe of a sunset where we watch in a silent pause.
 
The night sky is both complex as it is deep and mysterious. There is a temptation to go too dark or too bright-I have strayed between the two junctions in painting this subject matter. The night sky has just as much, if not more than the landscape in daylight. I started with exaggerating the light and darkness and have recently found my happy medium.
I’ve noticed from a recent camping trip that the depth of the sky is  composed of barely discernable blue stars, a mid range of mildly bright stars and then the foreground stars that set off the entire sky with light. I have noticed how the eye moves through the scene and the stars twinkle as stars become visible and other stars fade into the darkness. The next step is how the light reflects on the landscape and the water. I want the viewer to watch the sky and get lost in the silence of stars-the title of my latest painting.
I intend of mixing the two venues in the near future by adding water to the darkness-some new paintings on the sketch pad is the ocean peir at night, the ocean surf at night and a fountain that is lit up by the light of natural and manmade processes. I will continue to bend the movement of water and the light and dark, creating a statement about nature, it’s mystery and the secrets of the evening sky.
To artists and collectors-how have you found your subject matter and how did it develop over the years? For the collector-what paintings or pictures capture your interest and why do you think it captures you interest?



Rememberance: A moment of realization of life and the fragility of the human spirit.

My son and I went fishing at our neighborhood park, we were both agitated from a day of work, school and just all around daily stresses. We both snapped at each other and carried the stresses of the day with us but we were trying to unwind with an evening of fishing. We ended up being spectators at a rememberance for a young girl that had recently committed suicide. What we both gained through the experience was perspective on the way we carry through our daily stress and the fleeting fragility of life.

I didn’t know any of the details, I just heard the music and could barely discern what seemed to be a eulogy. The amazing thing about the evening was that everything stopped for a moment, the birds stopped singing, the water was still and the clouds parted to allow a great warm light on the water. You could call all of this imagination or coincidence but it was the presence we both could feel. It was sad but it almost seemed hopeful, the light shined on the water and made an incredible display on the lake. We both thought of the way we treat each other and how much we appreciate the people around us that we call friends and family.
As the blue and red balloons left the ground and rose into the sky, it was as dramatic as it was symbolic. I could see the people hugging each other and the pain of loss and the shock was something you could feel like the start of a storm-the static feeling in the air. I’ve always said one of the saddest things when someone you love dies is the fact that nothing stops. One of the strongest memories I have of my dad dying was the fact that I had to bring the garbage in, the mundane feeling of bringing in the garbage,
the stubborn weight of the chore that seemed indifferent to my situation. I can honestly say though at this moment the world stopped, even just for a few seconds-I watched their candles reflecting in the lake as the glow grew larger and the balloons disappeared into the darkening 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.



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
This is the beginning of the new series, it was started immediately after the first waterfall from the previous series, or really at the same time. It has taken several changes of form, I really wanted it to be more clear water but it turned more into reflections and darker areas of water. I tried to allow the viewer the feeling of the different colors and textures of the water finally ending in the waterfall in the distance.
I think this was a bit more impressionistic than some of the previous waterfalls and unfortunately the image and viewing of the original was a bit more distant than the previous moon scene which was painted immediately after seeing the scene. This is the second in the new series of paintings-there are actually about twenty new images on their way to being published. 
This scene was envisioned while fishing for trout with my son at Turner Falls Oklahoma, it was originally sketched and sat in the studio unfinished for quite a while. It was finished at the same time or a little after the image of Petit Jean in Arkansas.
I am in the process of creating an interactive gallery-I will send out invitations to followers and friends with images of the paintings  and  an invitation to check out the gallery. The gallery will start out with previous paintings that will be available on the website-you will walk along a gallery of paintings and be able to move along the gallery and if you want to see more detail of any of the paintings you will be able to click on the image to get to a closer view. This gallery will eventually turn into a gallery where I can get photographs of sculptures from other artists and paintings from other artists and the gallery will have all kinds of techniques and information on the artist and the work-the only thing that will be missing is having a person coming by and telling you not to touch the paintings. It’s a multi-purpose idea-other artists can gather to check out each others framed paintings, there will be input available for change of scenery or style of gallery-just a fun interactive artist project-we’ll see how many people will get involved.
Previous Painting of Petit Jean artbygordon,com 


Candles

Flickering lights
In warm shadows
Fragrance of vanilla, cinnamon
And every night she comes
And we dance in shadows
Walls of flame they flicker
She in all her colors like night
Perfume whispers to senses quiet
We dance all night
In shadows like ghosts
Cryptic forms like souls
Without form
And every night
She comes and we dance in shadow
Wakes me in the AM
French vanilla, sticky sweet
And every morning
The light extinguished
She and I
In twisting forms like flames
Extinguished
Their dancing embers
To the night sky
Leaving me cold alone
In darkness
And every night she comes
And we dance
In shadows.

Poem 4-12-13- a poem a day first in the series

2AM
2AM
words like whispers, God awake,
the empty night
the forest quiet
all the creatures poised,
we would trade all security
all of our confidence
for just one noise
but the silence is unrelenting
as all the good ones lie asleep
and only words through
early morning slumber keep
quiet as if God
awake
teaches me a song to sing
quiet in the aftermath
of weeks passing
2AM
and sleep has crossed my mind
but words thrown like stars
in an evening sky
shine and shooting by
quiet as if God’s awake
and all his creatures
wait for just one taste of divinity
a slice
in white, pale like the moon in evening
when all the good ones sleep
God in whispers
Speaks in riddles
And all his secrets
Keep.