musings from the studio and beyond ~
dawn chandler’s reflections on art and life. . . .
5.08.13 ~ have you strung your soul to silence? baldy mountain from wilson mesa, reconsidered
 |
| have you gazed…. ~ baldy mountain from wilson mesa, reconsidered ~ by dawn chandler ~ mixed media on panel (diptych) ~ 36″ x 72″ ~ copyright dawn chandler 2013 PRINTS AVAILABLE CLICK HERE FOR DETAILS |
This is exciting: Tomorrow is the opening of The Gift of Inspiration, a special invitational art exhibition at the Philmont Museum. The show features the art of select former Philmont staff members who’ve gone on to pursue careers in the arts, and I’m honored — thrilled! — to have been invited to participate.
It’s also the the unveiling of the first piece in my new series of paintings combining traditional landscape painting with “abstract” or unexpected elements. As I’ve mentioned before, it’s been a long-held dream of mine to find a way to combine my two “styles” of painting — traditional landscape and more abstract mixed media works, I just never really quite knew how to do it.
But then some things started to happen — about which I wrote a few weeks ago.
Thanks to those influences, I was inspired to infiltrate my landscape paintings with fragments of text — of personally meaningful passages of words. The text I chose for this first series is that of Robert Service’s 1910 poem, The Call of The Wild.
Have you gazed on naked grandeur…
Have you swept the visioned valley…
Have you strung your soul to silence…
Have you wandered in the wilderness…
Have you camped upon the foothills….
Have you roamed the arid sun-lands….
….Then for God’s sake go and do it.
Though poetry scholars have long rolled their eyes at Service’s doggeral lyricism, this poem is none the less one which fueled the passions of my peers and me “back in the day” when we “roamed the arid sun-lands” teaching back-packing and camping skills as Rangers at Philmont.
After forgetting about the poem for over two decades, I came across it again this winter when I found my old Wilderness Quotes booklet from my Rangering days.
Service’s words ended up being the perfect jumping off point for developing my new series of paintings, especially as I’ve been thinking more and more about land and nature and the environment. In this 21st century, fewer and fewer people have gazed on naked splendor, or swept their eyes across the visioned valleys. In this crazy modern world of constant updates from wired devises, few have strung their soul to silence. When I think of my backpacking buddies from my young adulthood — and even myself until just recently — how many still camp upon the foothills or roam the arid sun-lands?
Damn few.
We’re losing touch with these places, and with that loss, losing a key sense of our own souls — never mind the irreparable loss of the wild places.
I think I’ve found my soapbox.
Only mine is made of panels and paint… and words.
More to come.
Have you gazed…. so large (relative to my studio and car!) that I had to make it as a diptych (two panels together measuring 36″ x 72″), and the only place I could fit it to work on it was on my kitchen table!
Incidentally, I’ve had prints of this painting made; they’re available through my online print shop via Etsy. Click here to get there.
Some details:
5.01.2013 ~ baldy from wilson mesa – mark’s view – painting and prints
 |
| baldy from wilson mesa ~ mark’s view ~ by dawn chandler ~ oil on canvas ~ 24″ x 48″ ~ copyright dawn chandler 2013 |
And here it is: the grand result of my recent painting explorations of the view of Baldy from WIlson Mesa. Recall that I started this project because my brother and sister-in-law desired a large painting for the fireplace mantel of their cabin. My brother had worked the gamut of jobs in the Ranger Department at Philmont back in the early 1980s — Ranger, Ranger Trainer, Rayado Trek Coordinator and Associate Chief Ranger — and so knows that country well. Of all the places on the Ranch though, the top of Wilson Mesa and its majestic view of Baldy Mountain is his favorite. This, then, was the view he requested for the painting.
I created six painting studies of the view for him to consider. In the end, this is the one he selected, and in my opinion he made the right choice. The other paintings are all lovely, but this one has a commanding presence — a majesty — not quite found in the others. This painting — this view — of Baldy from Wilson Mesa makes me pause with awe and wonderment: Can I do it?
And then it makes me want to lace up my boots and start hiking…west to that summit.
By the way, I’m offering limited edition prints of this painting. They’re for sale via my print shop on Etsy — access it by clicking here.
Note that there’s a 15% off coupon available if you visit my Dawn Chandler Landscapes FaceBook page; get there by clicking here.
And even better? There’s a 25% off coupon available to folks who subscribe to my newsletter (which comes out 2 – 5 times per year). Shoot me an email if you’d like to subscribe: dawn@taosdawn.com.
These coupons are good through next Tuesday (May 7th).
Details of the painting and print:
And this is the study painting from which my brother made his selection:
 |
| baldy from wilson mesa – mark’s view (study) ~ by dawn chandler ~ oil on panel ~ 12″ x 24″ ~ copyright ~ dawn chandler ~ 2013 |
04.23.13 ~ baldy mountain from wilson mesa ~ monsoon season (philmont)
 |
| baldy from wilson mesa – monsoon season ~ by dawn chandler ~ oil on panel ~ 12″ x 24″ ~ copyright dawn chandler 2013 |
For a few brief moments this afternoon, Santa Fe almost looked like this. We so need so many more of this deep-purple grey to the mountains and sky, for they foretell R A I N.
A few droplets is what we got — just enough to settle the dust and tease the flora and my senses. Oh how divine it was to smell rain, if only fleetingly.
Pictured here, my recent painting of Baldy Mountain (Philmont) consumed in the summer monsoon rains. This image is based on a photo by musician Timothy Seaman (thanks Timothy!), who worked at Philmont in the early 1970s. The painting is the fifth in my series of paintings of Baldy from the top of Wilson Mesa.
04.21.2013 ~ finding peace in art & nature
 |
| late winter shades of the gila ~ by dawn chandler ~ oil on panel ~ 12″ x 24″ ~ copyright dawn chandler 2013 |
When tragedy strikes, I retreat. My instinct is to withdraw; unplug from society and bandage my soul with space.
Quiet.
Solitude.
I turn to art
and I turn to Nature
So it was last week when a blue and yellow banner in a sea of joy in our beloved Boston became awash in blood and shrapnel and splintered lives.
After so many hours I needed, finally, to step away from the news.
I needed to do something to counter the choking feeling of helplessness. I needed to quell my anger and outrage. Or maybe I needed to go somewhere quiet and safe and let it seethe a while.
I wanted to hibernate.
So I did, in the late winter colors of the Gila* Wilderness of southwestern New Mexico.
Six weeks prior, in the final days of winter, a group of friends and I loaded up our backpacks and headed to that dry corner of New Mexico. Despite nineteen years of living in New Mexico, other than a quick drive through on an Arizona-bound road–trip once, I’d never been to that part of the state. Little did I know how much I was missing.
I took over 300 photos of the Gila for painting reference. But I hadn’t gotten to it yet. Travel. Chores. Errands. Other Projects. It all kept getting in the way.
Then came the events of last week… and the muted colors of late winter in the Gila provided a tawny bandage for my soul.
*Pronounced “heel-a”
Art and Nature
Nature and Art
They help.
…as does fitness. And community.
For a couple days after Patriot’s Day I ventured out on the nature trails closer to home, to further bandage my soul. I did so by joining thousands of other runners across the world in “Running for Boston.”
04.09.2013 – a midday view of baldy
 |
| baldy mountain from wilson mesa – midday atop the mesa – by dawn chandler – oil on panel – 12″x24″ – copyright dawn chandler 2013 |
The fourth (so far) in my series of views of Baldy from Wilson Mesa. With its sun-bleached colors and lack of shadows, this one really captures for me the dry heat of midday in New Mexico.
Thanks, Clay Pruitt, for the use of your photograph! He took this shot while on an Autumn Adventre Trek at Philmont.