This painting is an expedition into the past through nature with my sketchbook and paints. Inspired by a gathering of vintage postcards of landscapes from around the United States. This imaginative experience on paper involved a versatile medium (acrylics). For me, acrylics mirror aspects of oil paint as well as watercolors.
As a young girl, I used to collect postcards. These mementos from family vacations or trips became treasures I saved in a shoe box. Of course I would buy some extras to send to my friends and I loved doing that. The collection grew and became a source of remembering and connecting.
Over the years I received a small collection of postcards that were my grandparents. They are some of the most special cards I have today. Looking through them helped me know them a little more. I got to visit places visually I’ve never been to or remember them talking about. I still have those cards in a shoe box all these years later. I’ve loved looking through them and remembering. It’s been meaningful to incorporate pieces of this experience into something new yet familiar in the form of a painting.
My grandparents visited a lot of desert type areas in their travels. Some of the postcards were actually beautiful paintings instead of photos. In this sketch I just wanted to capture that desert essence. To feel that warmth and freshness. The dramatic cloud activity and vibrant blue sky I felt to be more universal, and worth exploring as part of this landscape.
The sketch itself is 4.25″ x 7.25″ and was painted on 100 lb bristol paper. The artwork is one of a kind. I used a lot of quick brushwork to generate the feeling of texture in the landscape. Soft layering of colors adds dimension to the lush palette of colors and mimics the experience of a physical landscape. The price includes shipping.
For more information or to buy the painting just click Contact.
Categories: Landscapes, Nature
CATHERINE J MARTZLOFF / Bright and Expressive Original Oil Paintings 