Monday, March 9, 2009

Falling Snow and Lava Bombs

After the soft caresses of Hawaii's balmy breeze, we are now in Oregon being pelted with snow, sleet and icy winds. And as I look out my studio window at near blizzard-like conditions, I'm creating some new pieces in my Volcano Series. The contrast between my current actual environment and the searing heat of spewing lava in my creative space is quite extreme.

 
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What's new in this series? Well, I recently discovered a gift my friend Toni gave me after her trip to Hawaii in 1978. It is a small book "The Petroglyphs of Hawaii." After thumbing through the book, I realized that I could take these symbols and create the patterns I use in my art. So you may notice that these new peices have a combination of my own patterns and Hawaiian petroglyph patterns (from images found at Pu'uloa.) Also I've changed my pallet from piece to piece. I've enjoyed putting a very dark sky above the leaping lava. In Lava Bombs I and II, I used gouache paints to decorate the sky with what are actually called lava bombs--pieces of flying rock spit out by the volcano.

 
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Lava Bomb I 10 x 14 image, 16 x 20 framed

 
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Lava Bomb II 10 x 14 image, 16 x 20 framed

Something I've not done before is paint companion pieces. Although these 2 pieces were painted together with the same pallet colors,layers, and patterns; they also can stand alone.

Here's the piece I finished yesterday. I've included in the painting the conduit bringing the lava to the surface, another new thing in this series.

 
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Green Flash 14 x 20 image, 20 x 26 framed

I would love to hear your response to the new elements in this series.

To get a close-up of these paintings, put the mouse over the image and left click.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Margaret, These are great! They are getting more geological/archaeological in concept. I like this touch because it leads to looking more deeply into the piece and what it's saying about volcanos, Hawaii, past and present. I have a watercolor that I bought in Mexico a couple years ago that has something of the same sense to it. I'll try to get it scanned to send you. In this case it's tree roots and jaguar images. congratulations on the OWS entry accepted! Marvelous. You're hitting it every time these days. You're a master of your medium! Cheers, Julie

Anonymous said...

Hi dear, I miss you. So fun to be in Blue River and at your B-day party. I looked at a book of photos Grandma at the Ranch made afer our trip to Hawaii after high-school graduation and wondered who tat was that went to Hawaii and now you found a book I found there and then. Amazing and yet I do remember that the volcano stuff really interested me and I thought it was beautiful. Now you are making beautiful things from that same inspiration. Time flies but so much really doesn't change. I think that is comforting. I think coming home to Oregon will be comforting. This from someone still trying to overcome jet lag... Life is good. Toni