making earth 1

Watercolor on 140 lb cold pressed paper.

This painting ships unframed in a clear acetate sleeve. A local frame shop will be able to help you get it matted, framed, and ready to hang.

One of the things I like most about the transition from autumn to winter in Chicago is the leaves that pile up underfoot and begin to decay, making earth (as Wendell Berry would say). That is the inspiration for this painting, which I envision as the first in an open-ended series. In making this scene, I began with three small color fields -- blue, yellow, and red -- near the center of the surface, a sheet from an Arches watercolor block that I dampened thoroughly before applying pigment. I used three brushes and water to nudge those fields over the whole surface, seeking well-ordered collisions dominated by reds and yellows and a range of browns on their way to the rich blue black of good earth.