Susan Fahrni emerges from the Columbia Valley: Tale of the Tour Chair Part 5

Artist Statement

I love nature and I love to try to capture it on canvas. Everything I paint means something special to me, whether it’s a scene I’ve tried to capture before it disappears, a view that holds special memories, or a glimpse of a part of our valley that I want to share with others who might not otherwise have access to it. The places I paint are real and as I paint I am ‘there’ be it perched on a mountain ridge, sitting by a lakeshore or standing upon a tussock of grass in the wetlands.
I generally work from photos, however, for me, capturing the images in paint on canvas gives them an importance, value, and even permanence that I feel photography can not.
I begin a piece by drawing key shapes on the canvas then washing a thin layer of paint on to block in the major features. I then start working from the background making my way forward envisioning what is behind and hidden by each slope, tree, etc. before I paint it. For me this working in layers gives each scene its veracity and depth.
Sunlight and its effects fascinate me. I have always admired the stained glass of medieval Europe and I love the way the sun illuminates it and shares the coloured glow with the world below. It is a man-made tribute to God and the world He created. However, His work cannot be surpassed as sunlight gives life and purpose to the colours of the real world giving them an “unearthly” glow.
When my work is going well, I feel a sense of awe and wonder and a thankfulness that I have been allowed to capture and recreate our beautiful world. Having said that, I am not certain how it happens and feel that I’ve been witness to magic as the work paints itself having merely allowed me to mix the colours and hold the paintbrush.
As I work, in my mind I see the birds and insects, feel the warmth of the sun, the caress of a breeze, and hear the rustle of leaves, the buzz of insects, the chirp and call of birds. I am transported to whatever scene I am trying to capture.
I have come to realize that my art represents who I am: passionate, realistic, yet orderly and a stickler for detail, and very ‘down-to-earth’.

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Tale of the Tour Chair Part 5

At long last the artist began to sketch the mountain upon the chair back.

Carefully she mixed her paints and commenced to build the mountains. She first laid down the bedrock. It would take much time as there would be many many layers of rocks to paint.

Time and time again she lost her way upon the mountainside. Where was she? Was that large fissure in the rock here? No, wait! It was over there. It was tricky to keep her place upon the mountain as the spaces between the wooden slats caused to her lose her place many times.

Perhaps she thought, " I should place the snow and the water."

So she mixed thin layers of colours and filled in the spaces for the ice and snow and then the frigid water. Now it was easier to see where she was.

Alas, time passed too quickly and the light was fading. She would have to stop for the day.
(to be continued)

Susan Fahrni emerges from the Columbia Valley

Contributors

Artist Statement

Art Galleries in the Columbia Valley

Purchasing

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Tale of the Tour Chair Part 5

No comments:

Followers