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Tolkyes — Photosynthesis
Published: 2010-02-04 05:30:45 +0000 UTC; Views: 6000; Favourites: 208; Downloads: 0
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Description
Oil on canvas. 18"x24".I've noticed that about a third of the paintings that I've done in the last 11 years are snow scenes, which is strange since I have lived in Florida most of my life.
The only Florida imagery that seems to influence me much, are its large and weird tropical plants, mangroves and cypress knees, morning mist and summer skies during the rainy season. Here it is.
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Comments: 35
Well without proper water and sunlight. There would no plant life on planet earth along with the multiple biological animals species that use those plants for food and shelter.
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Yes, for the most part except for some forms of life that live by steam vents deep in the sea and a few other strange places.
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Good to know. Every biological specimen takes in route in environmental adaptation.
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Amazing!!! how do you think all of your paintings up???
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Thank you. I just have an aptitude for drawing and painting organic forms. I like glowing organic forms in particular.
At the same time I like landscape painting. I especially like to depict the seasons and the weather.
I combine them in varying degrees.
Listening to 'mindscape' music helps, too.
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Nice!
I like how there seem to be different planes existing over each other simultaneously.
I really like the tree roots floating in the pool of blue mist at the bottom right!
Seems like they might form into an enormous octopus and rise from the mist to claim this new world.
That flying bug weed tubular translucent creature just below the rainbow is really nice too!
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Thanks. I'm glad you like it. I'm still considering doing another painting influenced by the ending of "Dancing with the Moonlit Knight" because it also sounds like there's a strange bird calling out- a sort of weird 'rainbird' that I might want to paint. We'll see.
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So cool your work is driven by music and sounds.
Music is so important to me as I work.
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Thanks. The rainbow was fortuitous. I had already painted it before I started painting the organic imagery in the left side. The left part of the rainbow was originally going to disappear behind the mountain. Instead I decided to extend the appendage on the 'luminorph' a tiny bit. This leaves it up to the imagination of the viewer as to where the rainbow is originating from exactly.
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This is just so unique in it's own special way that I can't explain it
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Hi!
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This is amazing~ The colors and scape, simply beautiful.
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First, let me assert this is a really-cool painting. I love it! Thanks for sharing this artwork of yours with us.
Florida sure has changed since I lived there back in remotest antiquity (1956-1965). Dade County is now Miami-Dade County - Whatever for? - and "Old Folks at Home" has been replaced by "Florida (Where the Sawgrass Meets the Sky)" as the state anthem, or song, or something. They've torn down the Orange Bowl Stadium, Republicans take most of the bribes in Tallahassee nowadays, English is barely spoken in my old home town of Miami, yuppies have taken over Miami Beach and there aren't any more astronauts sortieing from Cape ... just a moment ... it's back to being called Cape Canaveral, I guess.
Well, such is life. Say, is that crumbling structure in your painting what's left of the Steven Foster carillon tower after it was bombarded with artillery by the Grand Army of Political Correctness? Maybe it's what's left of Vizcaya, after all those "free trade" politicians signed some bamboozling pact there and the place was raided by the several million people in the U.S. who were immediately put out of work. (I used to direct traffic at Vizcaya on weekends, when I was in high school.)
But seriously, or joyfully, I'm having flashbacks due to all the imagery in your Deviation! Those cypress knees are thinking, "Oh, good. Here comes a couple of humans in a canoe. Let's hide just below the surface and then tip them into the water." (This almost happened to me way back when, on the Peace River.) A few of the more ambulatory creatures remind me of some uninvited overnight visitors who hurriedly departed after I knocked my inverted hiking boots together in the morning, whilst camping in the Everglades.
All those colors and shapes.... It's wonderful. Bravo! The last time I saw Florida was in 1979 - indeed I'm sorry I did - and due to the dwindling money-tree harvest here I'll never see it again, except via your painting and others' photographs. I like the painting best!
=^..^=
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Thank you. I'm glad you like my paintings. I've really been getting a lot of favorable comments about my work on the internet, lately. I've had a computer for about 5 years but I'm just now getting proficient enough with it to display more and more of my artwork on various sites. I still can't type worth a damn.
Now if I could actually sell some paintings, that would be even better. I've sold about a dozen paintings at local galleries but half of them were to friends of mine. As far as the internet goes, I did sell a painting to a guy in Italy and I've sold two commissioned paintings to a woman that I correspond with after she contacted me through DA. She lives in England. I would like to live there. I've been enamored with the scenery of the British Isles- England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, with their rolling hills, mountains, gardens and ruins since I was a teenager.
Florida is just so flat and there are no ancient stone ruins, of course. As far as gardens go, there are some like Vizcaya ( that's the estate with the beautiful gardens in Miami, right?) but they're few and far between.
Besides, Florida is turning into a giant sprawling suburb now. When I was a teenager, my friends and I used to take frequent canoe trips, observing the cypress knees in the morning mist, the trees and wildlife, while seldom running into anyone else. We used to camp overnight all over the place- on the Alafia River, at several parks nearby or just simply in a field or woods in our neighborhood whenever we felt like it. Unfortunately, you can't do that anymore. There are a lot more people now.
I can't complain too much, though. I'm lucky to be in a nice neighborhood here in Brandon, about 15 miles inland from Tampa. This neighborhood was built during the 1960's. That's also when my family and I first moved down from Kalamazoo, Michigan. On my street as well as the adjoining neighborhoods, the houses don't all look alike and we have actual yards. There's a small woods and two large fields nearby with goats, horses and donkeys. There are about 30 peacocks that live on the grounds of the Brandon Aquatic Center who like to get out in the morning and roam around the streets nearby.
Also, there isn't much traffic to speak of, at least in the immediate vicinity, anyway. A family of Hawks lives nearby and I can hear and occasionally see large owls in the backyard at night.
I loosely base some of the landscapes in my paintings on places around my neighborhood and memories of Michigan, especially during the Winter. Otherwise, the only other part of the world that I've been to is New England a couple of times.
The structure in my painting, "Photosynthesis" is from one of many black and white copies that I've made from clip art, old National Geographic magazines and library books. I don't know where it's from. The original photo was in an old library book which contained black and white photos of ruins from around the world.
I don't go to the local library that much anymore, though. Half the books are gone now. Instead it's DVDs and computers. Progress is good in some ways yet unfortunate in others.
I worked for my dad for 25 years at his commercial art studio in Tampa until we went out of business in 2001. Our hand-created art was no longer needed that much when people could now get clip art off their computers and could do their own layouts and typesetting on computers.
So I turned to painting, which I wanted more time to pursue, anyway. Now of course, I'm using a computer to show people my traditional hand-done oil paintings and drawings- kind of ironic, I guess.
Well, it was nice to read about you. I went to your site and I really like your photos. You've had an interesting, well-travelled life, I must say. Keep up the good work!
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It's very beautiful done, the colours and the details are amazing!!!
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I get a very dreamy feel from this. Like everything is sleepy and warm. It's beautiful.
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Thank you. I really like your comment. It was supposed to be a bit drowsy in a sense like gradually slipping from wakefulness into a pleasant dream. This is the same feeling I get when I listen to the ending of the song, "Dancing with the Moonlit Knight" by Genesis, which was an influence for this painting.
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As "Dancing With the Moonlit Knight" ends it always sounded to me like being in an enchanted meadow after the rain.
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You're welcome and thank you for appreciating my work.
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This is amazing, the colors are vibrant and beautiful. I really like your surreal style, keep up the good work!
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Thank you for your encouragement.
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I love the mood of the picture, it's so full of life and joy
The concept is amazing as well.
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This was somewhat influenced by the "Selling England by the Pound" album by Genesis along with my other painting, "A Country House Garden". Both are based on the feeling I get from the ending part of Dancing With the Moonlit Knight".
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