inspired by...

I've always loved mountains.  I grew up a few hours from the Blue Ridge and spent my childhood visiting every year.  The endless sweeps and drops of green and blue and gray.  So much beauty.

Now I have new mountains to admire and love.  All the rust, gold and tan with splotches of green.  So much beauty.

And inspiration...

The photos above are spreads in one of my art journals I did not long after my return from New Mexico.  

When I first returned, I was obsessed with painting an image that had formed from my flight home.

I call it Above the Clouds.  I'm not sure if I'll keep it this way or if it will go into my re-use stash.  At one point on the flight, I looked out the window and all I could see was the blue above and clouds below.  It seemed like that was all that existed.  

One of the New Mexico sights I've found inspiration from is Cerro Pedernal.  I already shared images that I made in our class project.  

This is Pedernal Weeps.  If I remember the story I heard correctly, the indigenous peoples of the area believed that the world was formed from that mountain.  I think the creators came from there.  I really wish I could remember the story I heard.  I've tried to google it and could find nothing.

Anyway, I'd done the painting and while I liked it, it just didn't seem finished. I remember waking in the middle of the night and going to the studio.  I took the closest matching acrylic inks I had and dripped along the sections.  I kept thinking, the world weeps because of all the chaos and terror in the world now.

I really like how it turned out.

Just before I left for that trip I was experiencing bouts of insomnia and ended up in the studio late night/early morning several times.  This acrylic and pastel is what came from those couldn't sleep sessions.

I call her The Guardian.  

I think this about wraps up my experience of New Mexico.  I'm going to have to find something else to share about.  :-)

I guess I need to go on another trip.  Or maybe just leave the house.  ;-)

What have you been up to lately?

Thanks for stopping in to read...
love & blessings
~*~