Latest painting off the easel from PatternArt Studio/Gallery. This piece is from an after Christmas ski vacation in Winthrop. It was cold, first morning there, the mercury registered -4 Farenheit. I’ve always loved the Ponderosa Pines on the east slope, the sienna colored trunks set against the cobalt blue and cerulean shadows draped across the snowy landscape, and the ever present Corvids. As we skiied through the pine forest the silence would be interupted by their croaking call, pure magic. In the woods, Ravens and crows are always present, not always visible but they are there, watching us. Their intelligence and curiosity are fascinating; Scientific research and study have revealed that these amazing birds have been shown to remember past events, plan for the future and make tools. By the time Ravens are 4 months old, they had mastered many tasks. In fact, researchers have discovered that the testing results compared similarily to those of adult chimpanzees and orangutans. Studies have also shown that they recognize human individual faces and regard us a threat or benign, and then pass this knowledge on to their young. A good read about these amazing critters is “Mind of the Raven” by Bernd Heinrich http://www.thenaturalistsnotebook.com/mind-of-the-raven
I belive it isn’t appropriate to determine an animals intelligence by comparing it to human . Animals offer different kinds of intelligence which have been under rated due to humans fixation on language and technology as an indicator of cognition. We pride ourselves as the most sophisticated of earthly evolution, and yet it is humankind knowingly fouling our own global nest.
I am offering Watercolor painting classes in my Studio these days. We just finished the first 4 week session and will be starting another group this wednesday. I hope to continue these classes so if you are interested please contact me patternart@yahoo.com or call or text 360-820-8025 for details. Attached below is the reference watercolor painting I demonstrated for the first group. I showed how to paint a wet on wet watercolor sky with multiple glazes, how to lift pigment out of the foreground hill to suggest city buildings off in the distance, and then the challenge of painting water in perspective for distance using drybrush techniques.
