Fire Creek No.5

I really should be writing these as soon as each painting is completed; life has been moving far too quickly. Thankfully, even though the last couple of months were a blur of work, I still remember many of the feelings connected to the paintings whose pages I have yet to publish.

Fire Creek No. 5 holds a special place in my heart visually. This was the last of the Fire Creek paintings created at the Lost Lake parking lot along Chuckanut Drive. The composition was literally a 45-degree turn to the left from the previous painting. I saw the ferns and the way the light played across them and immediately knew I wanted to paint it.

Funny enough, the piece didn’t go as planned at all and brought up a great deal of self\-doubt\. In retrospect, that feels strange\. I’ve been in this position many times before, yet I still struggle to trust the process\. Perhaps that’s why the painting ended up looking so different from the others\.

The painting became much more graphic with the introduction of red into the composition\. Many of the major additions toward the end came from desperation and indecision, but they led the painting somewhere I never would have reached otherwise\. Continuing to pour time and effort into something you aren’t sure about doesn’t always pay off, but it certainly did here\.

This feels like the direction I’d like to steer my work: more graphically driven, harsh and subtle, graphic and natural, cool and warm. Of course, it’s amusing to think I can steer the work when the reality is that life and experience are doing much of the steering for me.