Posts Tagged ‘oil painting’
Posted by Michael Scott on April 1, 2013
April Fools! Another winter has passed, another opportunity to prepare the batch of seed that will yield a harvest of completeness and yet we find ourselves sowing for the most part, more of the same strain. Habits are not unlike the roots of a tree, they keep us grounded yet tethered in the same old space, good or bad, right or wrong, healthy or unhealthy. Too often, despite our best efforts to find true and lasting transformation, we find ourselves grappling with the same old demons that we did yesterday, last month and last year.
While there is a humble, if not cynical humor associated with the first day of April, there is also a wake up call, a reminder that transformation doesn’t happen without effort. We all have the ability to engage our minds in original thought and to realize meaningful and lasting shifts of our own consciousness. It is the uncovering of the truths from within that render the past irrelevant and the opinions of others unimportant. The hard part is maintaining a vigilant watch over that truth to keep it from withering away.
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Posted in art, Inspiration, Oil Painting, Photography | Tagged: adventure, art, colorado, creativity, inspiration, law of attraction, oil painting, photography | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Michael Scott on November 11, 2012
“Softly the evening came. The sun from the western horizon like a magician extended his golden wand o’er the landscape; Twinkling vapors arose; and sky and water and forest seemed all on fire at the touch, and melted and mingled together.” ~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
To the person who first likened being unrealistic to having your head in the clouds I say this; there is nothing more real, more perfect and more original than a cloud. To sit and stare for hours if you wish, witnessing what has never been before and what will never be again is a better use of your time by far than memorizing tables and formulas for it teaches us that possiblities are endless.
The thing that I love about painting clouds is that there is no right and wrong. One might say that a cloud is ominous or unusual, but never ugly or unrealistic. A couple of days ago I was hiking under the most amazing lenticular formations and I estimated correctly that when the sun dipped low to the west that they would light up like fire in the sky. The resulting sunset brought inspiration, which manifested an application for the encaustic (wax) paints that have been sitting on a shelf for almost a year.
“Fire in the Sky” my first encaustic painting
It took a while to figure out how to apply the wax and move it about using palette knives, rags, heat gun and torch. In the end, I’m pretty happy with the way my first wax painting turned out. After all, I’ve never met a cloud I didn’t like.
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Posted in art, colorado, encaustic painting, Inspiration, Oil Painting, Photography | Tagged: adventure, art, colorado, encaustic painting, imagination, inspiration, law of attraction, oil painting, photography | 4 Comments »
Posted by Michael Scott on October 21, 2012
The Palisades of Cimarron Canyon, New Mexico
If you happen to follow my other blog, LocalTouristColorado.com, you know that I often share some of the same material on both sites. Usually I do manage to switch caps however and write something that might be meaningful to the audience that I’m addressing. The Local Tourist Colorado is all about experiencing things that are close to home. No matter where one might live, there is always a new adventure right around the corner. Art Spirit Village is entirely different. This is where I share the things that motivate me to release my passion for creativity in hopes of somehow connecting with others who have the same passion.
Canyon Road – Santa Fe
All too often however, both of these missions converge and I find myself totally confused about which blog to post the content to. The New Mexico border is just a few miles south of my home and every time I go there, I get inspired to create. After returning from an incredible weekend in Santa Fe, I have to share. Great artists will tell you how important it is to surround yourself with people who stimulate your imagination. I’m here to tell you that being surrounded by states that inspire is not a bad deal at all.
One of the many windows along Canyon Road
Saturday “Art Walk” Entertainment
Tammy and Charlie “Art Walkin”
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Posted in art, colorado, Inspiration, Oil Painting | Tagged: adventure, art, colorado, imagination, inspiration, law of attraction, new mexico, oil painting, photography, santa fe | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Michael Scott on September 1, 2012
Full Moon Over the Spanish Peaks and La Veta, Colorado
“Every Artist dips his brush in his own soul and paints his own nature into his pictures” ~ Henry Ward Beecher
There is something powerfully captivating about this land, where high alpine twin peaks stand alone between the Rocky Mountains and the Great Plains. The Ute, Comanche and Apache tribes called these mountains the Huajatolla(breasts of the earth) and considered this aesthetically poetic region to be sacred. Today, these mountains are known as the Spanish Peaks and artists are drawn here from all over the world to become inspired.
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Posted in art, colorado, Inspiration, Photography | Tagged: adventure, art, colorado, cuchara, huerfano county, inspiration, la veta, law of attraction, mountains, oil painting, photography, rocky mountains, sangre de cristo, spanish peaks, trinidad | 2 Comments »
Posted by Michael Scott on August 21, 2012
Moon Sliver
It is so easy to give the beauty of this world and this universe a passing glance, occasionally pausing to admire long enough to frame a pretty picture in a camera or in the mind. It is more difficult, yet well worth the effort to look beyond the surface, to access imagination, to search for information that is something closer to the truth.
Looking Beyond
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Posted in art, colorado, Inspiration, Photography | Tagged: adventure, art, colorado, imagination, inspiration, law of attraction, mountains, oil painting, photography, rocky mountains | 2 Comments »
Posted by Michael Scott on August 20, 2012
Stars Over Cuchara
Back in the old film days, I did alot of night time photography, always experimenting with very low light and very long exposures. Upon entering the digital age, I was more than a little disappointed to learn that both of these environmental variables caused a wild and noisy pixel party that I wanted nothing to do with. Recently, I’m learning that there are ways to overcome the paradigm shift and I feel like a kid in a camera store. Stay tuned for more experimentation to come 
Two questions:
1. When was the last time you went outside on a clear night, allowing your eyes to adjust to the low light and take it all in?
2. Do you believe that there is more to this world than this world?
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Posted in art, colorado, Inspiration | Tagged: adventure, art, colorado, inspiration, law of attraction, mountains, oil painting, photography | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Michael Scott on August 11, 2012
“Secret Falls” – Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell 8/10/12
“The mind is sharper and keener in seclusion and uninterrupted solitude. No big laboratory is needed in which to think. Originality thrives in seclusion free of outside influences beating upon us to cripple the creative mind. Be alone, that is the secret of invention; be alone, that is when ideas are born.” Nikola Tesla
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Posted in art, colorado, Oil Painting, Photography | Tagged: adventure, art, colorado, creativity, inspiration, law of attraction, mountains, oil painting, photography, rocky mountains | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Michael Scott on August 5, 2012
July Afternoon On The Purgatoire River
It might just be true that there is nothing more soothing and tranquil than to sit next to a high mountain stream on a warm summer day, to become one with the rhythm of nature. There is a sensory renewal, a transfer of energy that takes place within me and I find that for those peaceful moments an abundance of fullness that reminds me that Anything is Possible. The human consciousness is likened to a mountain stream. It ebbs and flows through the seasons of life and it has the uncanny ability to re-generate from a quiet frozen drip to a powerful moving torrent, this is the absolute law of the universe.
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Posted in art, colorado, outdoors, Photography | Tagged: adventure, art, colorado, inspiration, oil painting, photography, rocky mountains | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Michael Scott on July 4, 2012
“Icy Paws” 24″x48″ Oil on Canvas
Charlie is the lone survivor of the four canine soul mates that have touched our (my wife and myself) lives over the course of the past thirteen years. Roughly twice a day, he will stand before me, stare into my eyes and wag his unkempt yet lovable tail with a posture that signals that he is ready for a walk, an adventure, an exuberant indulgence in the freedom of being what he was designed to be. More times than not, I tell him that I am not ready, that I am in the middle of something important and that he will just have to be patient. He almost always responds by replacing his forward leaning stance with a neutral sitting position, maintaining that intense expectant eye contact for as long as it takes until he hears those words “do you wanna go for a walk”.
Today is the Fourth of July, Independence Day in the USA, a day that specifically commemorates the signing of the Declaration Of Independence in 1776. While we certainly use this day to honor our fallen heroes and brave soldiers, the Fourth of July has also become a celebration of our individual freedom, the freedom that we have to pursue the life that we authentically desire to live without having any governmental body or religious sect enforce the contrary.
In my experience, I have discovered that the greatest oppressor of personal freedom often resides within our-selves. Now back to Charlie for an Illustration of that point. Charlie hasn’t had a lifetime full of choices, education, experimentation, goals or trials and tribulations, yet he seems to have an absolutely clear understanding of that which he wants and that which he is. When he is idle, I don’t think he ponders what else he might be to feel complete. He simply sits and waits with unending patience, knowing that the opportunity to revel in his purpose will eventually come. In this respect, Charlie knows a freedom that few humans ever find. Many of us humans have early inclinations towards the things that truly interest us and often those are the things that we are best at, the things that come naturally. The problem is, most of us don’t follow that lead. Instead we fail to recognize the validity of those revelations and we set off on a journey to find something better. We find ourselves in a quagmire of expectations, material distractions, uncertainties and compromises all in the interest of finding something that we had all along, an authentic purpose.
Personally, I met my creative spirit early on in life and then like most of us, I jumped the fence and searched the world for something better. Almost thirty years later, I have come home to my artful purpose, I am patiently waiting for the next opportunity to create and for the first time in my life I feel that I have truly claimed my inalienable right to be Free. Happy Independence Day!
“Patience” 16″x20″ Oil on Canvas (Yep, that’s Charlie)
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Posted in art, Inspiration, Oil Painting | Tagged: adventure, art, colorado, cuchara, dogs, freedom, independence, inspiration, July Fourth, la veta, oil painting | 6 Comments »
Posted by Michael Scott on May 25, 2012
Mr. and Mrs. Duck
First there is a warning quack, then a resounding quack-quack followed by the fluttering of wings. “There goes Mr. and Mrs. Duck” Tammy will say and we watch the pair skim over the water in the same easterly direction. And so the chain of events repeats itself, day in and day out as we take our daily walks. Ahhh, summer in the mountains of Southern Colorado.
When I was a kid, I’d take an old shoe box, poke a hole in the end of it and tape a piece of black and white photo paper inside. It always amazed me how I could miraculously produce a photograph using such simple tools. Today, it amazes me that with all of the fancy equipment I can’t seem to get a wildlife image that looks much different from those pinhole camera pictures. Shooting photographs or video of wildlife is an art form that I have not neither mastered. I am persistent however and I have the desire, a combination that will eventually unlock the door to success.
So, back to that elusive pair of Ducks and the comical scene that unfolds each time I try to photograph them. I’ve done everything shy of dressing in camouflage and building a duck blind to capture their image. I have indeed, crawled through the grass on my belly and hidden behind a nearby shack a number of times. Holding my camera in shooting position, I peer around the corner as if I’m an FBI agent on a drug raid. “Quack…Quack Quack….Flutter Flutter”, they’re gone before I can take command of my focus ring.
Quack…Quack Quack…..Flutter Flutter
It seems as though the same scenario plays itself out no matter what the subject matter is. Tammy and I drive everywhere with cameras ready and tripods extended for when and not if we see a heard of Elk, a Bear or a Mountain Lion. The way it really seems to work is quite different from what we anticipate though. In the past 7 days, we have seen a Blonde Male Bear, a Black Male Bear and a Momma Bear with three darling little Cubs. When we see something really great there is an adrenaling rush and a very confusing attempt to communicate with one another that could easily lead to disaster. “Stop” “Go” “Roll Down the Window” “ Move out of my way” “We need a new windshild” are the types of things you might hear in that moment. It’s not uncommon for me to lose my mind and attempt to take pictures from a moving vehicle, while I am driving. And then there are the times when we are whispering and moving very slowly to get into position. I open the door with the key still in the ignition and the “ding-ding-ding” announces to the whole forest that we are there, larger than life.
So go easy on me when you judge these pictures. They aren’t as easy to get as you might think. You can bet that I will be bragging it up when I finally get that award winning wildlife shot.
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Posted in colorado, Photography, video production | Tagged: adventure, art, bear, colorado, cuchara, huerfano county, inspiration, la veta, law of attraction, oil painting, sangre de cristo, spanish peaks, video | 7 Comments »
