Land Escape

Landscapes can be so much fun to paint when you are making them up in your head. I tried to draw on landscape motifs from things I have painted on location, to the left most is a classic beach scene with white sand and turquoise water, on the right top, you see rugged Canadian shield reminiscent of the work I did in Algonquin park years ago. In the middle of the painting there is a visual transition from the two types of landscapes, with the flying character sort of torn between the two (or is she tearing them?). The feathers of the character are woven into the landscapes, is she escaping, or being held back?

This painting was based almost entirely on doodles from my lab notes, but instead of following them to a tee, I introduced some visual elements that were necessary to convey the tension that the flying character was feeling. Firstly, the pine tree in the top right is dissolving into the sky and streaking into the form of the flying character, and the loopy lines on the foreground are flowing into the tail feathers making it look she is either trying to tear away, or the land is holding her back... I intended the message to have an ambiguity. As for the two characters in the bottom right, not sure what they are doing, but they look like they would also want to be on the beach....

22x15" cold press, 2011