Fossils

Fossils 1 - 3

mixed media 

on 4"x4"x1-3/8" wrapped canvas

Many years ago, when I was very young, I used to take road trips across the U.S. and Canada with my parents.  On one trip we went to the Pacific Northwest, where I was amazed to learn that there was a place called the Yakima Desert in Washington State.  Yes, there is a desert in Washington!

thunder egg agate

Here's the thunder egg agate I bought in the souvenir shop at the time.  I've always loved how the agate looks like a maple leaf with a seascape inside.  Nature never ceases to amaze me.

The poetry of the earth

is never dead. 

~ John Keats

So it made perfect sense when these three little canvases I've been working on turned into fossil paintings.

click to enlarge

It almost felt like a fossil hunt when I painted them, too.  I applied layer after layer, wiped away paint here and there, until the fossil images emerged.

Adopt the pace of nature:

her secret is patience.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

I gently wiped the layers of paint so much, the result is a burnished look I've never seen in one of my paintings before.

Fossil mixed media painting (detail)

Can you see the texture?  I don't know if I'll ever be able to duplicate this method again.  Maybe these will just be three unique little paintings, pale imitations of the fossils they represent.

In wilderness

I sense the miracle of life,

and behind it

our scientific accomplishments fade to trivia.

~ Charles A. Lindbergh