Back to Eden (Trees, trees, trees)

I completed "Cicada Tree" this morning. I have been working on this piece for the past few weeks. This was a particularly interesting study of nature because this is a time when slight seasonal changes are occurring rapidly. Each day there are remarkable differences. Shadows are becoming more severe, the air is crisp on either end of the afternoon, cicada are leaving their shells everywhere, and some trees are just oozing with sap.
I am finding all the change very inspirational yet difficult to capture in its fleeting nature. I am flooded with ideas but scrambling for the time to execute them in a careful way. There is so much editing to be done before a canvas is even stretched.
I have been trying to squeeze self portraits in between projects. This helps because it sort of removes the aspect of subject matter from the work and highlights stylistic and theoretical developments. It is always interesting to view works and then a self portrait of the same period. They offer information about one another. The self portrait to the left was done about a week ago in watercolor. I have been relearning the medium and am surprised how difficult it can be. With this, you have to allow the paint to do what it is best at. You kind of can't go wrong if you just give the paint some space. It is really beautiful when you do.

Growing up and even in college, my strongest artistic influences were members of my family. We had an exhibit this summer of works by 8 family members. Most are or were professional artists in one form or another and have life-long archives of artwork. I have always revered these elders as the best source of information and technique, as their work to me is basically perfection. I have recently developed a need to really invest some time in looking at other artists...ones outside my family. I have always held Cezanne and O'Keeffe in mind, and lots of others have come and gone as well. But now I feel I need to really search artists, new and old, to inform my own work.
As I read last night, "The experiences of the artist ineveitably bring him into contact with his environment and traditions; he cannot work in a historical vacuum". I wouldn't say I'm working in an historical vacuum, but I took this as advice.

And what I learned from the trusty Cezanne:
"Get to the heart of what is before you and continue to express yourself as logically as possible."

"But you know all pictures painted inside, in the studio, will never be as good as the things done outside. When out-of-door scenes are represented, the contrasts between the figures and the ground are astounding and the landscape is magnificent. I see some superb things and I shall have to make up my mind only to do things out-of-doors."

"The painter must devote himsef entirely to the study of nature and try to produce pictures which are an instruction. Talks on art are almost useless."