In Search of Christopher Robin

The Search

Day 1 (3/16/19)

After a very long winter the weather this morning was beautiful. Our son called to see if we wanted to head down to Harrington beach to do some hiking with his family. It didn’t take much prodding to get us to agree. They recently picked up a new little Boston terrier puppy, Moose, so it was a good opportunity to give him a chance to blow off some steam. It was our grandson Wade that had the most fun however. After being cooped up all winter he had to explore everything. It didn’t take long before his imagination started to run wild. Soon he and grandma had found a tree that looked like it could possibly have been Pooh’s house. Without going much further they found another one that just had to be Piglets. It was a perfect morning for exploring except perhaps for the slippery spots. Moose spent a lot of his time sleeping but did manage to do a bit of chasing around. As usual the beach offered another spot to explore. There was still some ice along the edges but there was enough area for walking. The park had made a lot of improvements last summer like a new shelter and stairs down to the beach. I hope we get more opportunities to explore this summer.

The Start

Deer

Exploring

A Tree in a Tree

First Cairn of the year

A beautiful day

First Ice Cairn

Second Ice Cairn

Looking North

Pooh's house

Piglet's

Puppy Kisses

The Renaissance

"Self Portrait" Last Elemental

Day 2 (12/30/2018)

The New Art started out as simple sketches in pastels and watercolors. Forty years later, most have been lost and only a few remain. It was in no means a quick development. For years I would go back to my roots and work on other things. I had graduated from college and for a couple of years worked on more traditional art but the idea was always there waiting for release with the flow of the swamp as a renaissance always in the back of my mind. Every once in a while I would go back and explore the possibilities more. The earliest sketches used both primary and secondary colors to represent the elements and forces of life. Yellow and orange represented the suns energy while blue and violet represented air and water.  Green and red represented the current of life. They were little more than abstracts of the flow of energy. Slowly they developed more and more imagery. With the imagery came more structure and the fragments started to take forms. In the end the last pieces were done with Prang oval pan watercolors using only the primary colors. I liked the glossy surface that was produced by the gum Arabic in the semi moist paints.  It eventually, like much of my early stuff, became tighter and tighter. The final piece was a self-portrait. At that point I realized how much time it would take to continue painting in that style. Later I would continue with the idea of directional flow but by then I was re-exploring my earlier attraction to airbrush.

"Rolling Landscape" A very early pondering

Early Elemental

Another Early Elemental

First Watercolor Elemental

Early Tree Elemental

Later Watercolor

In The Beginning

Metamorphosis 

Day 1 (12/21/2018)

I was just looking and realized that I had not posted one blog on here in 2018. I really don’t know where this year has gone. I have decided that I am going to do better in 2019.

The Dark Years

Lately, I have found myself pondering the origins of my art. It has been a long journey from a vague idea of what I wanted to do, in the beginning, to where it is today. Artists often speak of some loss, guilt or other profound insight as being the impetus for their art. I was never able to really claim anything like that. I like to think of my art as a celebration of life and everything involved. In the beginning, college years, I was fascinated with Intaglio printmaking. I have always been a good draftsman and found intaglio as a worthy outlet for those skills. At that time in my life, I found myself in an almost constant funk. The deeper I sunk the darker my art became and the darker my art became the more depressed I became in a constant downward spiral. One night I had an epiphany, if I could I could draw myself into melancholy, perhaps I could draw/paint myself out. I started searching for a new direction. Possibly because of my background I had always had a love of bright colors but the seventies were a time where everyone was preaching the gospel of earth tones. I had grown up in a swamp and my earth tones were different from theirs. Mine were the colors of flowers, birds and the new growth of spring. I came to realize the importance of the swamp to my overall being. The swamp was a renaissance. It was where all life flowed to be born again. This awareness became an important part of my new art. I started experimenting with color as representations of these elements and started weaving them into images.  

Cellular Awareness

House in the Tree Farm

Life

Relations in Nature

Social Parasite 

Top of the Hill (Southern Exposure)

Southern Exposure

Day 3 (7/2/17)

At this point it is early May of 2015. Nine months have passed since I made the western exposure time lapse video from “The Top of the Hill”. As I have said before I don’t get a chance to get back over to the farm very often but this was the opening weekend of trout fishing and turkey hunting. Although I would prefer it slightly more leafed out I have found this the best weekend without making a special trip over to the farm. Most of my life I have spent the opening morning of trout season at the Mill Dam on Tamarack Creek. When I was in elementary school my brother and I would camp at the dam which was probably a quarter of a mile from the house I grew up in. It became a tradition that lasted through High School. I continued to go back fishing but unfortunately stopped camping. Tamarack Creek has had its ups and downs through the years. When I was young most of the fish in the stream were planted and there were browns, rainbow and brook trout. At points because of pollution the creek was almost dead and at some point they quit planting fish in it at all. Years later after the farmers were required to follow land management practices brook trout started naturally reproducing and eventually it became one of the few naturally producing streams in the area. My mother had passed away earlier in the year so the whole trip was wrought with mixed emotions. I was coming home to an empty house and even though it been over a year since she had lived there it was still strange. As soon as I got there I went up and placed the camera so that I could get as much footage as possible. My friend, Nelly, showed up later and we set up the turkey blind. Since moving to the eastern side of the state I have also been picking my dates for turkey hunting based on the fishing opener. That way we can make the most of the weekend. We got up before the sun to make our way to the blind. We were unsuccessful at calling in a bird but as usual were treated to a beautiful sunrise. After a couple hours we headed back to the dam where we were much more successful. Mostly we are catch and release but will keep some if they seem injured. I used to always keep one for my mom because she loved fresh trout. In the afternoon we returned to the blind. Again we were denied. I must admit that I don’t take it very seriously. It is just fun to get out and watch life pass by on the hill. We finished the day with our customary bonfire and stories. The next day was more of the same but by noon I had to grab the camera and head back home. I never know what to expect when I get home and finally get a chance to view the footage. It seems there is always something captivating about watching the entire weekend in ten minutes. 

First Morning

Fishing at the Dam

Second Morning

A little Building

The Dam

The Dam from Above

Southern Exposure

Top of the Hill (Western Exposure)

"Top of the Hill" (Western Exposure)

Day 4 (6/29/17)

As I mentioned in an earlier post from 6/13/17 I had decided to make twenty four hour time lapse videos from “The Top of the Hill” on the farm that I grew up on. I had played around enough with the camera that I felt pretty comfortable giving it a try. We decided to take a couple of days and camp at the farm along with a trip up and down the Minnesota and Wisconsin sides of the Mississippi. These are my old stomping grounds so I try to do it at least every couple years. It usually becomes a food fest and is centered around hitting our favorite restaurants. We worked our way up as far as Wabasha the first day and spent the first night on the river there. The next day we worked our way over to the farm. When we got to the top of the hill it was incredibly hot. We spent some time setting up camp but we spent even more just sitting under the trees waiting for it to cool down. Eventually I set up the time lapse camera and we finished setting up camp and had something to eat. As the sun went down we were treated to a incredible sunset. Unfortunately because of the heat and humidity shortly after sunset the fog started rolling in so we missed one of my favorite parts of camping on the farm, watching the stars. Being on top of a hill with no towns within fifteen miles makes it a spectacular view. When we woke up there was a heavy fog covering everything. As we made breakfast it started to burn off. We left the camera setup but packed up camp. Our plan was to continue our trip up the Mississippi and come back the next day and pick up the camera. That night we stayed in Pepin and went to our all time favorite restaurant “The Harbor Café”. We hit all our favorite haunts and eventually had to retrieve the camera. It turned out my first attempt at making a time lapse video from the farm was a success.

On our Way we saw some Cranes 

Wabasha, Minnesota

More Wabasha

Mississippi from Beuna Vista, Alma

More Beuna Vista

Set up

Camp site

Sunset

More

And more

One more

Bluebird of Happiness

Leaving the Top of the Hill

The final Painting

The First Show

Sandy Rosbeck's Heavy Metal Chair,Schools Out was a
big hit

Day 3 (6/25/17)

Last night we had our first opening at the Old Town Hall Studio & Gallery. After a year of renovation and planning the night was finally here. We are very proud of how everything turned out. We had set out to develop a gallery space that would be friendly and inviting. Our unofficial slogan is “Serious art in a not so serious environment. Our first show lived up to that promise. The artists that participated in this show were selected because they had somehow helped to make the gallery a reality. That made for a very eclectic show with some artists who were seasoned professionals while for others it was there first time showing. The quality of the work was wonderful running the gamut from figurative to totally abstract. Each artist had also been given a Samsonite folding chair from the original hall to alter and decorate. They did not disappoint. Like the artwork the chairs went in many different directions from representational to abstract. One artist created a Heavy Metal chair while another altered hers to represent crackers and cheese. Others took a more conventional route and did paintings and drawings on their chairs. We lined them up in such a way as to simulate how they would have been set up for board meetings. The chairs were a big hit. We also had installed a loft/lounge where you can get away and relax while taking in the surroundings. It is a great space for children to play with games and coloring materials. We are hoping to develop it further as time goes on. The old cigarette machine that we converted to an “Art in the Box” was a big hit. It took awhile but once people started getting small art others had to give it a try. We had no idea what to expect going into the event. We had kind of dropped the ball on advertising since we had been so busy with everything else. As it turned out we had a nice group that attended. Everybody seemed to have a good time and to finally see the gallery filled with art and people made all the hard work worth it.

View from Above

I love Dan Hernandez's watercolors.

A sculpture by Chris Hindle

Emma Larson's Watercolor 

An Airbrush by Mark Nelson "Government Issue"

Grant Van Driest's Paint Peel Chair

Sally Van Driest's "Curl"

Nate Urness's "Fold Up, Face Out

Kay Jelenik's "Go with the Flow"

Tieva Campbell's "Midnight Snack"

Eileen Urness' "Bits & Pieces"

Jim Burton's "Grousspapp(Grandfather)"

Grant Van Driest's Paint Peel Chair