Playing With Pyramids

Untitled

I must ask myself, what is this?

And, I must say to myself "Beats me!"

I had this notion I wanted to play around with geometric designs. I marched myself over to Michael's and bot some French Curves, templates for this and that and a compass.

I went right home and drew some triangles on a canvas, the three you see in the painting, and promptly put the canvas aside. When I came back to it I looked at those triangles and thought "What the heck am I going to do with this?" That became the exercise and the above became the painting.

The triangles became pyramids in my mind. The two triangles in the sky show the sun and the moon. Pyramids are thought to be very powerful designs. I have always thought it was interesting that the western indian nations designed their homes in the shape of pyramids. Many tribes have legends about gods coming down from the skies. The Sioux refer to Star People in their legends and songs. In my mind it somehow all ties together.

Art critics will tell me I committed a cardinal sin by placing the teepee smack dab in the center. All I can say is, it wasn't a teepee when I put it there. It was a triangle and then it was a pyramid and then it was a teepee. I think of it as a power center so being in the center is precisely where it should be.

The little fetishes resting in the grass are buffalo.

And, as always, I just love the colors!

If anyone seeing this would like to take a stab at naming it that would be great. Just leave it in the comments.

Walker

Sweet Bitterroots - Montana

Continuing my love affair with the Bitterroot Mountains I painted this flight of fancy. I just love color and this painting lights my color candle. The color and shape of the mountains is pure imagination as is the color of the Bitterroot River. This is the beauty of painting. There is no limitation as to how you can apply your imagination.

I recommend everyone take up painting. It's absolutely liberating and I am after all the original Liberated Photographer and now I am the Liberated Painter. If it feels good do it! And this feels mighty fine to me!

Sweet Bitterroots

©Walker Barnard

Tin Cup Trail - Bitterrot Valley Montana

This past fall Molly and I headed down to Hamilton at the south end of the Bitterroot Valley. The prior spring I had fallen in love with the place but the valley is too long to be conveniently located to all the fabulous trails from one end to the other. So, I had to go back.

Unfortunately, some of the trails were closed due to the summer fires. Fires are a real problem in this valley and they leave the trails too dangerous to walk for fear of getting beaned by  falling trees.

Of the trails I was able to hike, the Tin Cup Trail was by far my favorite. The varied fall colors of the ground cover plus the larch trees really lit my candle. I have been fascinated by larch bark ever since I came to Montana, 15 years ago. The red and black designs knock my socks off. I tried to photograph it but nothing came close to capturing what I was seeing. I was determined to try and paint that bark and so I did!

Tin Cup Trail

Photography no longer holds my interest. Painting is so much more creative. Your subject matter is only limited by your imagination. It's so liberating!

©Walker Barnard

My Montana

I just finished this painting and it is without a doubt my all time favorite.

The painting is on canvas paper because it started out as a self designed training exercise. Thing is, I should know better because once I get started things just take on a life o their own. What I was about was experimenting with different brush strokes.

The other challenge; I was wanting to try using just the three primary colors, plus titanium to mix them with. I had read some artists do this exclusively and I wanted to give it a go. Seemed impossible to me before I tried. I cannot believe I was able to mix up such beautiful colors just from those three. It's totally amazing.

MY MONTANA

I can't begin to tell you how much I love this painting. The colors. The brush stokes. The subject. This painting truly is My Montana in my childlike heart. What a blessing and gift it is to be able to create something like this for yourself.

It matters not what anyone else thinks. It's all about my joy. And, this painting fills me with nothing but. Oh, how I love my Montana!


©Walker Barnard

Dome Mountain

Dome Mountain is my sixth effort. There may be a Dome Mountain somewhere but this one came straight out of my paint brush. The inspiration for the snow capped mountains came from the Whitefish Range in Montana and the foreground came from visions of Montana hay and wheat fields. A dome mountain is basically an old volcano. It's the color that makes this painting so pleasing to me. When I look at it I just want to smile. They say "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder". Simplistic as it may be this beholder sees beauty here. Maybe it more pronounced at the moment because it is winter in Montana and color is not something we get to see much of. All I know is the bright colors brighten my day and make me feel happy.



 © KinseyBarnard