Nature's Best Work

Nature has all the elements of design: line, shape, color, texture...

"Nature contains the elements, in color and form, of all pictures, as the keyboard contains the notes of all music. But the artist is born to pick and choose... as the musician gathers his notes, and forms his chords, until he brings forth from chaos, glorious harmony. --- James Abbot McNeill Whistler

Line: Look at nature's calligraphy... Red winged black bird egg

NATURE'S COLLAGE: The bird used bits of newspaper and old found papers...
Rooted nature clings to nothing to be a new thing....

TEXTURE: These bird eggs were collected from one nest. The one spirit, silent, beats in every breath its name....

COLOR: Lingam rocks are found in a sacred river in India. They are believed to be filled with spiritual healing power. Look at the beautiful subdued, earth colors.

SHAPES, TEXTURE, LINE: Keep your love of nature, for that is the true way to learn to understand art more and more. --- Vincent Van Gogh

SHAPES AND TEXTURE: Seed pods and remnants of plants... within my hands, what's lost is found....

THE READY MADE NEST: Some birds may use human-made materials to build their nests.

The age-old story repeats itself..

Below is an etching by Yoshio Imamura. He incorporates nature into his work in beautiful, subtle ways. You can see more of his work here.

"The beautiful is in nature, and it is encountered under the most diverse forms of reality. Once it is found it belongs to art, or rather to the artist who discovers it." --- Gustave Courbet

Some of the images in this blog post came from the book EGG & NEST by Rosamond Purcell.
It is a beautiful picture book that captures the intricacy of birds' nests, and the aesthetic perfection of birds' eggs. You can find the book at Amazon.com.


"The Artist has been the element of nature, and the arbiter of nature; he who has sat on a cloud and viewed it from afar, but at the same time has identified himself as one of nature's parts. The true artist views nature from his own time."
---- David Smith, (1906-1965)

Visual Nesting, of a Sort

NEST
I walked out, and the nest
was already there by the step. Woven basket
of a saint
sent back to life as a bird
who proceeded to make
a mess of things. Wind
right through it, and any eggs
long vanished. But in my hand it was
intricate pleasure, even the thorny reeds
softened in the weave. And the fading
leaf mold, hardly
itself anymore, merely a trick
of light, if light
can be tricked. Deep in a life
is another life. I walked out, the nest
already by the step.
----- Marianne Boruch

The main theme of my painting, for several years now, has been the passage of time and what remains. Within that theme, my subject matter has changed and currently my work has to do with the effects of time on memory. But there was a time when I painted bird's nests and bird eggs. I collect bird eggs and nests, and yes, even bird skulls. As I explored the effects of time on nature I was also interested in the cycle of life. Bird nests represent that cycle of life. Every
spring, birds build their nests and hatch their eggs. Like watching the waves come in, or drawing a circle, the nest also represents a recurring cycle and is calming and meditative. On a visual level, the intricacy of the structure of the nest is like calligraphy on the canvas. The textures, lines and marks of the nest are intriguing. Because of my love of textures, I am drawn to nests, as well as thickets, leafless branches, empty trees. I have used digital images of nests or hand painted them. Also, isn't there something wondrous about the aesthetic perfection of bird eggs? They are fragile, yet a powerful statement for the cycle of life. When you think about it, every animal begins life as an egg. Is there an image that shows up in your work over and over?