Hanging Glacier

                                                   Hanging Glacier watercolor on yupo 12x9


 As I ease back into painting, I don`t have an agenda like I usually do. I`ve cancelled everything because my legs are not reliable yet. So floating images from the past are fair game for painting until I`m hiking again and finding new subjects.
 I was in Alaska 17 years ago and saw this glacier high up the mountain where it had seemingly stopped moving. With a southern exposure it was melting fast and throwing off a beautiful waterfall. Later I was in a boat on a lake beneath it, and there were mini-icebergs everywhere. We were told when glaciers calve into fresh water the chunks of ice are called 'growlers'.
 Definitely memorable which is why I`m still painting it.
 I coated the Yupo with a tinted acrylic matte medium first to give the surface just a bit of texture. Something for the watercolor to hold onto and easier to control. Now thats it`s finished I`ll seal it with a spray UV protection acrylic varnish.

Fjaorgliufur ! [Icelandic Canyon]

                                                       watercolor on Yupo 12x12


 Just like painting the geothermal pools in Yellowstone, this canyon in South Iceland was so ornate and unbelievable there wasn`t a credible visual 'center' to work from. When the facts are so odd and unfamiliar, questions about realism are irrelevant. Any rendering will be as strange as the site itself. So after traveling so far and at considerable expense to see this wonder, I`m sort of paralyzed as to how to proceed with painting it. I was there for a couple of hours but there was a lifetime of material.

                                                            Fjaorgliufur photo


 For the ten days since our return my head has been spinning with confusion about whether to even try to paint what I saw. I`ll probably do some watercolors and feel it out, over time.
Before leaving, I had been in Coos Bay and exploring the preserves and parks in that part of the southern Oregon coast. No problems with that landscape.


 My brilliant niece Elizabeth is getting married the day after tomorrow. To a fine young man and an original thinker. Lots of relatives about and joy in the air. My brother Gary would have been so proud of this moment, he loved her exuberant spirit. She truly is unique and it`s been fascinating watching her grow up.
So, with all the commotion I`ve had to clean my house! Big project!
Interesting thing, as soon as I start, I`m suddenly filled with artistic inspiration. Dying to get into the studio after doing nothing for a week.
In his illuminating book "The Erotic Mind", Jack Morin explains the one thing that will intensify desire is an obstacle. Too busy scrubbing the stove, well of course my authentic destiny as a painter will beckon!
The opposite can be true as well. Clear the decks of any and all intrusions into quality painting time and you may enter the studio empty of ideas. It`s maddening and perverse and all too human.

                                                    Gjian panorama by John Sanders


 The utopian, impossible paradise set in the badlands of interior Iceland.

                   

 My new favorite brush; sharp point, heavy load, cheap and imitation squirrel!

                                             


 Most of the watermedia supplies I use. The Holbein watercolors are key.


From the files;

                                                      Snowfield Auke Bay oil on canvas 40x30


Painted from a drawing done on a ferry in Alaska.

work for sale in my studio