Pages

29 March, 2010

Rock Solid Neutrals

Erratic Boulder
6.25" x 8.5"
Pastel & Charcoal
Casey Klahn 


These car sized boulders are called glacier erratics.  They remind me of the way that neutral colors can mimic, or reflect, the colors around them.  This is true of the grays, and of the browns and tans that I used for the grass - they "adopt" the violets and blues that surround them.

14 comments:

  1. oooh, nice....is this a plein air piece?

    ReplyDelete
  2. 10Q, Lisa!

    Thx, Loriann. It is from a charcoal sketch I made as a doodle - then I liked the composition and made the painting. From the imagination, except I have seen so many rocks just like this.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Beautiful, Casey! I love your new work!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Nice one.
    From the imagination, wow, I'm impressed!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Beautiful work, Casey! You've combined my two passions: art and geology. Living in Upstate NY and Maine, I see plenty of glacial erratics. It's amazing how big they can be, but the glaciers that moved them around were over two kilometers tall, so these boulders were like specs of dust in comparison. Isn't nature wonderful??

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hey - there's Sheila! Thanks, and I hope your new studio is working out well.

    10Q, Jala.

    Hey, Kathy! Thanks - I used to spend a lot of time on Mt. Rainier, and the living glacier is an awe inspiring feature.

    ReplyDelete
  7. So, I guess what you're saying is neutrals aren't really that neutral after all... Great post with a wonderful centerpiece. I like that splash of red-purple in the sky which accents the trees perfectly.

    -Don

    ReplyDelete
  8. Casey,
    I live in the land of glacial erratics so I appreciate this interpretation of one. I particularly love the pink in the sky and the subtle hints of pink and purple throughout. It creates a gentleness that plays well against the scale of the rock.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thank you Don and Margaret for the kind and detailed comments.

    This was done on a piece of reclaimed La Carte sanded card, and that red-purple in the upper right is left over from the rubbed off pastel.

    ReplyDelete
  10. This is beautiful, Casey!

    I just happened to see a documentary recently that explained a theory of how erratics in Washington were carried in by sudden flood that also created unique landscape features.

    I love the color, as usual.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Thank you, Katherine - your comments are very kind.

    ReplyDelete
  12. That's a lovely painting, Casey which, being a rock, chimes rather well with some of my own rcent work. This seems rather more defined (less abtract?) than what I've become used to from you. Deliberate, or just the way it turned out?

    ReplyDelete
  13. Thanks, Harry. Maybe I am finding my voice on rocks. I did another yesterday on a laid paper rather than sandpaper. Of course it turned out differently.

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for commenting here!