Featured Artist Bob Crane

Artist Bob Crane presents a stunning portfolio of atmospheric landscape paintings. View more of his work by visiting his website.

 

 

Mother Nature. There is nothing more honest, harsh, sublime, balanced, beautiful or unforgiving. There is no judgment, no sentiment, no hopefulness, or expectation. She just is. She gives everything needed for life and as quickly she takes it away. There is no reason and no motive.

 

 

It is the paradox of nature that inspires me to paint landscapes. Nature’s seeming simplicity is a maze of the most extraordinary design. Colors reveal their richness as morning light casts itself through the waning darkness of nighttime, giving shape and form its place.

 

 

Spend time alone in nature and you will come face to face with self. Internal dialogue is endless, wanting to be heard, and Mother Nature will listen, quietly with complete and utter indifference. Scream, cry, plead, play the fool and ultimately you are alone with the absolute of your own truth, your own fear, your own ability to create.

 

 

Dancing upon the stage that Mother Nature provides, you learn the rhythm of the seasons, the ebb and flow of life and of death, the frolic of spring, the abundance of summer, the angst of fall and the despair of winter. There is no greater task master.

 

 

My camera is with me, always. I am endlessly capturing snippets of light and shadow, new values of the overwhelming claustrophobia of spring’s green, the rush of rose red tinged with pink, fields of newly cut hay bales lying in awkward rhythmic symmetry, sky’s blue lying flat on motionless bodies of water. There is never a shortage of images.

 

 

If anything I am overwhelmed, tortured by missing the moment where I see the warmth of light creating evening’s shadows as they play upon fields of ripened wheat.

 

 

Routine sorting, sizing, cropping and cataloging keeps me busy as I build my library of go-to images. Moods are cast, colors conjured, and palettes created preparing the canvas for my next soiree into the work of creating a representation of nature.

 

 

For me it is futile to go for photorealism. Nature does it better. I am after the connection, the kick in the stomach, the forlorn and abandoned, the unbearable breathtaking beauty in color and composition. Some colors can only exist in nature, for to try to represent them on canvas creates nothing but garish splotches.

 

 

Diving deep into the shadows blocking begins. Composition starts to emerge as medium tones, lighter tones and highlights of varying colors begin to create form and substance. Working dark to light, back to front and top to bottom as a unit, I eek my way toward a place where nature is in the balance. Too much of this or too little of that and it falls apart.

 

 

Where to go and for how long, when should this be done, have I already done too much. Step away from the painting. Go for a walk, eat something, stretch, sleep, only to rise and atone for work done to date. Hmm. Not bad really, but there are some adjustments that need to happen. Nothing is ever done, it is time.

 

Artist Bob Crane invites you to follow him on Instagram and Facebook.

 

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