Abstract Landscape Painter.  Rural Dweller.  Lover of Modernist Art and Design.

The Wind

Yesterday was a really windy day.  I photographed the treetops, near to the studio, blowing around dramatically. I love the roar of the wind on days like that - to stand beneath them and hear its deafening volume.  My colleague and I practically had to shout to each other to be heard.  It's such a powerful and exciting sound - so energising.  I have a friend who teaches infants.  She says that on windy days they are more difficult to control and will run around the playground shouting and screaming in an over-excited manner.  My dog too, despite her age, will go out into the garden on a windy day, sniff the air and run around barking at apparently nothing!  Similarly, I felt energised with my painting and continued to work vigorously on my latest landscape.

The other thing that I saw yesterday was a raven.  I was in the garden, chopping kindling for the fire, when I heard a deep "cark, cark, cark" sound from above.  I looked up and there against the tree tops was an enormous black bird, almost stationary, bracing himself against the strong wind like a kite.  We don't see them often, but two of my neighbours have mentioned seeing them lately.  He was an impressive creature, apparently steering his way around the prevailing currents with ease.

All text and images©2013 Carol Saunderson

Abstract Landscape Painter.  Rural Dweller.  Lover of Modernist Art and Design.

The snow has finally gone.  It was beautiful in its own way, but bleached almost all the colour out of the landscape.  I woke up on Sunday morning to find the world green again - and how rich and vibrant it looked.

Apart from the intense cold, I didn't mind it though.  It necessitated a couple of days off from the studio.  It gave me a chance to read and I appreciated the time to think.  I did some sketching, converting the windowsill of the bay window into a temporary desk and drawing trees seen across the field and birds in the snowy garden.  Everywhere was quiet without the usual traffic and due to the muffling effect of the snow.  We used up loads of logs and my dog slept peacefully by the wood-burning stove, enjoying the fact that we were all at home and the comfort that an elderly whippet loves so much!

Now I'm back to work again and feeling as if I want to work with even more vibrant colour than before.  Seeing my work in the context of a new gallery recently, has encouraged me to be as expressive and vibrant as I like and that this would be a positively good thing for the maturity of my painting.  Being truly yourself in your work seems to be the most engaging thing that an artist can do but possibly also the most difficult.  It requires continual courage to be free.


All text and images©2013 Carol Saunderson

Abstract Landscape Painter.  Rural Dweller.  Lover of Modernist Art and Design.

All text and images©2013 Carol Saunderson