Birdsong Above
Cedar Lee August 16th, 2010
Here is the finished version of the work in progress I posted a couple weeks ago–sorry it has taken me so long! I spent quite a long time tweaking this painting. For awhile I was frustrated with it, as happens with some paintings, but now I really love it!
Birdsong Above
40 x 30″, Oil on Canvas
The branches of this ring of trees form an interesting-shaped opening to the sky.
There are several birds perched in the branches–after I added them I was delighted at the images of birdsong that immediately filled my mind, which inspired the painting’s title.
The little birds are nothing more than crude silhouettes, anonymous bird shapes, but even so they have a powerful presence and even personality. I can hear them chattering happily to one another!
The yellow sunlight kisses the tree branches and washes out some of the green foliage with its brightness, bringing the texture of the tree trunks into sharp relief.
The colors are intensely vibrant, intended to capture the vibrancy of the moment, the feeling of being alive and under these trees!
In some parts, the picture degrades into meaningless, playful, big blotchy paint blobs–something I am always a fan of, especially when at a further distance it makes perfect sense.
Like all of my paintings, it is on a gallery-wrapped canvas, with the painting continuing onto the edges. (Shown here on its drying rack in the studio.)
Here is a sample of what this painting might look like in a room.
I actually recorded the painting process for this one, but it’s many hours of video footage and I have yet to edit it into time-lapse, “speedpainting” form. My son seems to have done something to damage the end of my FireWire cable (the hazards of having a 10-month-old in the studio, LOL) so until I resolve that issue I can’t even upload the source footage–so, it may take me a bit to get the video up, but stay tuned for it!
I also have several new sunflower paintings to get up on the website. I’ve not been getting much sleep lately AND I am 3 weeks into the hardcore workout program P90X, so I am a bit fuzzy around the edges these days. But if you bear with me, I promise there are more great things to come!
