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Oct 2, 2014
Price: Contact Artist for Price
Media: Oil Sketch on Centurion Oil Primed Linen Panel with additional coat of Williamsburg Lead Primer
Size: 5x7 in
Forests are places of wonder, but unless you encountered them and came to terms with them at a young age it is probable that you will never understand this ineffable truth. And they come in different flavors ... my favorite flavor of forest is the northern boreal forest surrounding the upper Great Lakes, especially that found in northeastern Minnesota and extending across ancient rocks of the Canadian Shield to the Hudson's Bay area. There is to be found that unique combination of deep, dark woods and the light and openess of water in the form of numerous lakes, ponds and rivers. These were my first forests and will always hold the number one place in my being, even though their trees do not approach the size of most of those in the Pacific Nortwest west of the Cascades Range; but there is ample wonder there ... and here is ample wonder too, amongst these giant Redwoods; most would say more-so, and I wouldn't disagree save that they were not my first forest. And here I am now within this forest of magnificence ... contemplating ... wondering. Thus the next day, on the Tuesday, I returned from my latest forest road campsite, and painted the above two Oil Sketches. During my musings of the previous day, I had decided on several possible places to paint, the first of which was that place off the main pathways in the Stout Grove, mentioned earlier (this would be image "C1567" the painting in the last post published before this one, and the second image above). The size of these massive trees would have to be suggested from just the lowest sections of their trunks, which would take up large portions of the composition, and this should begin to hint that these were not your everyday Douglas Firs or Western Hemlocks being depicted, but something else again entirely. The clumps of ferns at their bases would serve to suggest their scale as well. Seen through the foreground trunks in the distance, there appear smaller ordinary species, and these also provide a foil to the true giants close to. Hopefully this has all helped to indicate the scale of these wonders. In the afternoon I moved on to one of the other trails I had walked the day before as these stumps had caught my eye, as another way to deal with the sheer size of the Redwood, along with those methods in the first sketch. The two stumps on the fight are about 8' in diameter and the one on the left shows only about half of its 15' width. The trunk just left of center, extending upwards out of the picture, is an offspring of the far stump and perhaps got its start before the main tree fell. Most of these giants are clones of those immediately surrounding them, and come from the same growth. Only one out of a million Redwoods actually grow from the seeds found in their tiny olive sized cones, as I overheard a ranger say to a group walking in the Stout Grove. As I said in the last posting, the red earth pigment Terra Rosa was used as the imprimatura, on both these sketches, and the block-ins were done with Ultramarine. The other pigments used were Yellow Ochre, Naples Yellow Genuine (by Vasari), Venetian Red, Cerulean, Cobalt & Ultramarine Blues (to mix the greens), and Cremnitz White (all colours by W&N, except where otherwise stated). A bit of Cadmium Yellow was also used in C1568 (the stumps). (Please visit my blog for more) Forests are places of wonder, but unless you encountered them and came to terms with them at a young age it is probable that you will never understand this ineffable truth. And they come in different flavors ... my favorite flavor of forest is the northern boreal forest surrounding the upper Great Lakes, especially that found in northeastern Minnesota and extending across ancient rocks of the Canadian Shield to the Hudson's Bay area. There is to be found that unique combination of deep, dark woods and the light and openess of water in the form of numerous lakes, ponds and rivers. These were my first forests and will always hold the number one place in my being, even though their trees do not approach the size of most of those in the Pacific Nortwest west of the Cascades Range; but there is ample wonder there ... and here is ample wonder too, amongst these giant Redwoods; most would say more-so, and I wouldn't disagree save that they were not my first forest. And here I am now within this forest of magnificence ... contemplating ... wondering. Thus the next day, on the Tuesday, I returned from my latest forest road campsite, and painted the above two Oil Sketches. During my musings of the previous day, I had decided on several possible places to paint, the first of which was that place off the main pathways in the Stout Grove, mentioned earlier (this would be image "C1567" the painting in the last post published before this one, and the second image above). The size of these massive trees would have to be suggested from just the lowest sections of their trunks, which would take up large portions of the composition, and this should begin to hint that these were not your everyday Douglas Firs or Western Hemlocks being depicted, but something else again entirely. The clumps of ferns at their bases would serve to suggest their scale as well. Seen through the foreground trunks in the distance, there appear smaller ordinary species, and these also provide a foil to the true giants close to. Hopefully this has all helped to indicate the scale of these wonders. In the afternoon I moved on to one of the other trails I had walked the day before as these stumps had caught my eye, as another way to deal with the sheer size of the Redwood, along with those methods in the first sketch. The two stumps on the fight are about 8' in diameter and the one on the left shows only about half of its 15' width. The trunk just left of center, extending upwards out of the picture, is an offspring of the far stump and perhaps got its start before the main tree fell. Most of these giants are clones of those immediately surrounding them, and come from the same growth. Only one out of a million Redwoods actually grow from the seeds found in their tiny olive sized cones, as I overheard a ranger say to a group walking in the Stout Grove. As I said in the last posting, the red earth pigment Terra Rosa was used as the imprimatura, on both these sketches, and the block-ins were done with Ultramarine. The other pigments used were Yellow Ochre, Naples Yellow Genuine (by Vasari), Venetian Red, Cerulean, Cobalt & Ultramarine Blues (to mix the greens), and Cremnitz White (all colours by W&N, except where otherwise stated). A bit of Cadmium Yellow was also used in C1568 (the stumps). (Please visit my blog for more) |
Available Paintings by Steven Thor Johanneson
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