Timeout for Art – Conversations with Nature

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acrylic paintings of flowers, angels trumpet, Brugmansia, NATURE, Timeout for Art, Working from Life

“When one is alone at night in the depths of these woods, the stillness is at once awful and sublime. Every leaf seems to speak.”  – – John of the Mountains: The Unpublished Journals of John Muir, (1938)

From the 2nd-floor balcony – The tree is loaded, but for only ten days or so….

The days have been full helping Jim (and the cats) prepare to fly to the USA, but there are flowers in the garden that awaken when I am normally sleeping! The blooming period is quite sort, so at night I work on the studies while most people in Ecuador are sleeping!  Nearby Rio Cinto provides a subtle backdrop of sound, though there is a hushed stillness aside from random moths fluttering at the windows.    Every so often an insect finds its way to my work area – maybe in hopes of having its portrait made with the flowers?

Look who came to critique! A lightning bug!

Before focusing on the main subject, I usually work on a smaller study.   The upper and lower views of a  black/brown and white butterfly provided perfect challenges on different evenings.

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Timeout for Art: Scientific Accuracy

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art by Lisa Brunetti, nature studies, painting butterflies in watercolor, Painting Flowers in Watercolor, the great nature project, Timeout for Art, watercolor, Working from Life

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

‘We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.’- Maya Angelou

The watercolor (above) patiently waited for three weeks while I waded through dengue-clouded sleep and dog-paddled back to the land of the living. Like trying to remember a dream, I now recall details of the illness that return in little snippets, “Oh, the exceptional pull of gravity on my hands and arms felt as if heavy chains kept them cemented to the mattress.”  I remember seeing my puffy face in the mirror and wondering, “Who are you?”  After the fever left, I walked with a touch of vertigo and often listed to the left like an injured fish swimming in circles.  I walked little, as my blood pressure fell if I stood too long, so returning to the bed with easy sleep was a gift.

The butterflies and flowers from a year ago

At times I forced myself to sit up, take my temperature, pulse, drink more liquids, and then I collapsed back into the world of dreams. Oh, the places I went in that dream-packed sleep, and though my dreams I could fly! I could roam the world and other worlds and spend time with a new cast of people! On awakening, the vivid recall kept me entertained, and I rolled back after a brief commercial break and returned a the marathon of dreams.

I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly dreaming I am a man. ~Chuang Tzu

Two days ago I peered at the watercolor in limbo and pondered the wildflowers in bloom outside. They were at their peak a month ago, and they were now going to seed and would soon be gone for another year. I could rely on reference photos, but there’s nothing (for me) better than working from life. I retrieved some flowers, revived the dried watercolor palette and began painting.

Timeout for Art: Nature, the Great Listener

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Botanica Studies, Meditation through Art, Painting from Life, Timeout for Art: Nature the Great Listener, Working from Life

Petite Residents of Palo Santo’s Gardens – 

“Lose yourself in nature and find peace.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson 

Jama Ecuador –  This week’s work was painted in the serenity of the outdoors. The image below was started in the calm stillness of a late afternoon at Hostal Palo Santo, where I stayed this past Sunday night.  I worked until almost dark and was amused when two of the leaves nodded their heads back and forth as if to say, “We know you’re studying us and just wanted to say, ‘Thanks!’”   I acknowledged their subtle gestures, smiled and continued painting.  They resumed their poses as the silent communication between us remained strong.

Acrylic – Silent Conversations

Working outdoors presents its problems.   The sun and heat dry the pigments a bit too fast, and the wind scatters papers or flips through pages of sketchbooks.   Large works, taped or clipped to panels, often attempt to take flight and soar away on strong breezes.  Foliage flutters in the wind, so keeping an eye on a moving target presents its own set of problems.