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Hard Times Make Great Art

Nov7

Some folks – maybe a lot of people – are hurting right now. Feeling angry. Feeling devalued. Feeling that their voice doesn’t matter. Feeling powerless. Hard times are… hard. Hard times make great art. Always have.

…The world feels like it’s on fire, and there is war and destruction everywhere…

When I came home from Desert Storm, my painting style had changed (rather a lot), and the things on my mind began to percolate up through my art. I painted the war. I painted the chaos. I painted the things I didn’t have words for. I’ve used art to give voice to the things I don’t have words for “all along” – at least for the whole time I’ve been an artist.

“Kuwaiti Oil Fires” 20″ x 48″ oil on stretched silk, 1991

Shortly after I returned from the war, I gave up oil painting entirely, in favor of acrylic and pursued an abiding fascination with abstraction, and the use of nontraditional pigments and mixed-media elements in my work.

… And events just kept delivering hard times and trauma to reflect in art…

“9-11″ 18″ x 24” acrylic on canvas, 2001

Hard times come and go. Trauma is inflicted and endured, and trauma heals. The art remains.

I guess I’m just saying inspiration comes in many forms. Sometimes a beautiful sunrise on a favorite trailhead is enough. Sometimes events and circumstances provide inspiration of a different sort. I don’t know what to expect of my work from here, I only know I’ll keep feeling – and painting.

“Drone Strikes” 5″ x 7″ pastel on pastelbord, 2024

Sunrise at the Trailhead II

Nov5
“Sunrise at the Trailhead II” 5″ x 7″, pastel on Pastelbord, 2024

I take a lot of early morning hikes. I see a lot of sunrises. No suprise then that I also paint a lot of sunrises. This view is a favorite one, from “my” parking place at a favorite trail. I see the sun rise from this vantage point often. This colorful sunrise, a view seen in September (as I recall) was quite a splendid one, and I did my humble best to capture it, although there is no universe in which art could accurately convey the beauty of the colors I saw that morning. I’ll keep trying. I’ll keep wondering at those beautiful sunrises.

Fall Chrysanthemums

Nov5
“Fall Chrysanthemums” 5″ x 7″, pastel on Pastelbord, 2024

A pot of autumn chrysanthemums on a table inspired this piece. I enjoy using the bright hues of yellow, orange, and red pastels. There’s something fun and freeing about painting flowers, and an innocence and simplicity the riot of bright colors. Flowers seem somehow undemanding and joyful, and of all the pieces I’ve recently painted, my eyes keep coming back to this one.

September Morning

Oct17
“September Morning” 5″ x 7″, pastel on Pastelbord, 2024

The hikes are different as the seasons change. The autumn foliage takes on hues of gold, rusty reds, and hints of orange. The skies are grayer and the chilly breeze directs the migrating birds to warmer climates.

Full Moon

Oct12
“Full Moon” 5″ x 7″, pastel on Pastelbord, 2024

The full moon shortly before daybreak at the edge of a meadow inspired this piece. For me, this one is an autumn moment, in September; shorter days and later sunrises sometimes taking me by surprise, thinking I’ll be hiking, but finding myself waiting for the sun. The subtle violets and cobalt blues are among the delights of the Henri Roche pastels.

Autumn Breeze

Oct12
“Autumn Breeze” 5″ x 7″, pastel on Pastelbord, 2024

Autumn has long been my favorite season. Maybe it’s the colors, or the leaves falling? It could be the crisp air and chilly breezes. This piece recalls an autumn walk on a favorite trail, trees turning, leaves on the breeze, and migrating birds making their journeys to far off places.

Into the Sunset

Oct12
“Into the Sunset” 5″ x 7″, pastel on Pastelbord, 2024

Reflecting on the recent drive to the coast on my last painting getaway, I worked from the recollection of the drive, similar other sunset drives, and the view of a sunset in-progress from the balcony of my hotel room. It was a fun quick piece that I did while the sunset flared to full vividness, and finished as it faded.

Learning From Mistakes

Oct11

On a December trip to the coast last year, I saw an amazing sun rise. The sky was infused with hues of bold pink. I managed to get a shot or two, but mostly just watched it quickly evolve. It developed quickly, and quickly faded away.

So very pink.

On my most recent trip to the same favorite location, I found myself trying to capture that moment and the bold pink sun rise in pastels, using a combination of the reference photo I had set aside for the purpose, and also the view from my balcony (for scale and proportion and things of that sort). I found myself faced with what could politely be called “mixed success”. lol

“Siletz Bay Pink Sunrise I” 5″ x 7″, pastel on Pastelbord, 2024

Yeah… no. There are things I like about it. Things I don’t. The “mistakes” shout at me – so I tried again.

“Siletz Bay Pink Sunrise II” 5″ x 7″, pastel on Pastelbord, 2024

Another attempt. Another piece about which I have mixed feelings, and a great deal of criticism. lol I set the idea aside for another attempt on some other day.

There are things about both pieces I greatly enjoy. The colors being one of those, and I admittedly simply enjoy a sunrise, and these both find room in my heart on that basis alone. I’ll try this again, though. There is so much to learn from these attempts, and the image that inspires them. I learn a lot from “failure”, if these can really even be called that. They have beauty of their own.

Morning Mist, Taft

Oct11
“Morning Mist, Taft” 5″ x 7″, pastel on Pastelbord, 2024

This piece illustrates how very much art is in the eye of the beholder, and how little control over that an artist really has. I painted this from the balcony of my hotel room on a misty morning, watching the mist fill the spaces between distant hills on the other side of Siletz Bay. Shortly before, I’d received a worried phone call from my partner, uneasy about the potential of a tsunami (because I’d earlier messaged at how interesting it was to be able to see the tide coming in so easily from my vantage point, then suddenly stopped replying while I was painting this very piece). When I shared the completed work with my partner, he saw the image as tsunami-like, more than any impression of a misty morning. Funny how that goes.

Drone Strikes

Oct5
“Drone Strikes” 5″ x 7″, pastel on Pastelbord, 2024

This piece is a war-themed piece, inspired by the terrifying devastation of drone strikes in modern warfare, and specifically the successful attacks by Ukraine which destroyed Russian ammo depots in the summer of 2024. This piece is not for sale.