Detour for a Thirsty Raven | Raven Painting
A painting of a thirsty raven in a beer cellar, featuring oil paints made from Ozark pigments, by Madison Woods. Title: Detour for a Thirsty Raven, Size: 29 x 37″.
2023 Workshop Season
Workshop season is approaching, and I’m debating on whether to schedule a few this year, or not. I’m fairly decided that I will do some, but am undecided on what exactly I want to teach this time. Covid threw off my first attempts at getting some pigment hunting and paint-making workshops underway. Then once that …
A Spiral Day
This morning I walked over to see if there’s grass growing in the horses’ field yet. After crossing over rocks in the creek, as I walked up the hill out of the creek valley, I found this fossil. It looks like the spiral of an ammonite. If that’s what it is, it’s the first one …
At the Studio Tomorrow
On Saturday (March 18) I’ll be out at the studio in Alpena, from 9 to 4. We’re having a planning meeting with the community and interested vendors until noon. I’ll work on my booth display while I’m there, too. I’ll bring some inventory to keep there so I don’t have to haul it back and …
Art Made from Natural Materials
For the past few days I’ve had to make a detour from my Detour for a Thirsty Raven painting. Because my art is made from natural materials, it means I have to take the time to replenish my supplies from time to time. So, I’ve been washing pigments and making paint. Besides, the layers of …
Working on the Wild Ozark Studio
Just some musings and planning for the soon-to-be Wild Ozark Studio & Gallery.
New Acceptance | Creature Conserve at Swale House
I’m incredibly honored and excited to announce that Destination Unknown is heading to the Swale House on Governors Island, NY for the Re-Imagining Conservation: From the Ground Up exhibition. Many thanks to @creatureconserve Curator, Heather McMordie. The exhibit runs from May 5 –November. This is my red-tail’s second time to visit the NYC area to …
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Shiny Object Syndrome? | Switching Gears
Sometimes an opportunity arises and I leap at it. Afterwards I question whether or not my desire to pivot is warranted, or is it a case of ‘shiny object syndrome’. Have you ever heard of that phrase? It’s the habit of chasing one thing after another without staying focused on a larger goal. Switching Gears …
Brick and Mortar Studio Space | Alpena Mercantile
An exciting development is on the horizon! I’ll soon have some Wild Ozark brick and mortar studio space, and in a high tourist traffic zone (relatively speaking, for our neck of the woods). Brick and Mortar Studio Opportunity Alpena, Arkansas is about an hour from where we live, so I’ll only be able to make …
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Little Cabin in the Woods | No. 2
While I’m waiting on my white pigment powder to arrive, so I can make an opaque white paint, I figured I’d experiment a little with the paints I have on hand. My white grounds came in a few days ago, so I gave one of my 5 x 7″ boards a few coats. I’m finding …
Dreary Day Art | & Why Not Horses?
It surprises me that I have never attempted to paint horses. All of my early life I doodled horses on any scrap of paper I could find. Eventually I got pretty good at drawing them. Dreary day art musings led me to thinking about this after I went out to feed the real-live horses I …
Kings River in Autumn | Ozark pigments in oil
Today (Thursday 2/2/23), I started working over the underpainting I’d previously done for Kings River in Autumn. If you’d like to follow along, I’ll post my update pictures with each day’s work. It might need to dry a few days now, though. I’ll go back to working on one of the other seasons’ scene while …
Ozark Winter Storm | Jan 24 2023
Progress on my painting of Kings River in winter came to a grinding halt a few days ago when we got our first Ozark winter storm of the season. We’ve had some freezes, and a little snow, but those little incidents don’t compare. In previous years, we’ve had worse storms when not only did the …
Kings River in Summer | Ozark Pigments in Oils
As you might already know, I’m doing a series of paintings featuring the beautiful Kings river throughout the seasons. This page is for Kings river in summer. The reference photos I’m using for all four paintings are taken at the same location, different seasons and sometimes different times of the day. This one is a …
Empty Paint Tubes for Oil Paints
Eventually, once I’ve made more paints, I’ll write a page on my process with that. In the meantime, for those wishing to know where I get the empty tubes for oil paints, here’s a link. I get them from Amazon, and this is an affiliate link. So if you buy something after clicking through, I’ll …
Kings River in Winter | Ozark pigments in oil
The new year of 2023 kicked off the first oil paintings in my Kings River Four Seasons series. The one I chose to start with first is the winter scene. I’ll rotate through them to work on one while layers on others dry. Here’s Kings River in Winter as photographed and here’s the first pass. …
Kings River Paintings | Four Seasons
So many excellent paintings of the Buffalo National river and the surrounding natural areas exist, but I haven’t seen many King’s river paintings. While both rivers begin in our local area, Wild Ozark is in the Kings river watershed. And Kings river is closest. We cross it several times when we go to town. The …
Kings River | Scenes that Inspire Art
We live in the neighborhood of upper Kings River, in Madison county near the Newton county line (Arkansas). Kings River Falls are not too far away as the crow flies. The landscape here is rocky heart of the Boston Mountain range Ozarks, with very little flat ground away from the river valleys. Our 160 acres …
Update on the Gecko Paintings
I’m in the process of painting the third of three different geckos for a ‘Unique Pet’ portrait commission. I’m almost finished now with the painting phase of this project. After the last little gecko is finished, I’ll frame them and mount the pigment sample rocks on the frame. Finally, the backs will be professionally finished …
Limited Palette | Working with Only the Local Pigments
Madison Woods paints with natural pigments and works with a limited palette. She paints scenes in colors native to the location.
Painted with the Ozark Pigments | Collecting pigments everywhere
It seems like I pick up rocks everywhere I go. Now I do it with an eye for color. So far, I’ve only painted with the Ozark pigments. But, I collect pigment rocks everywhere I go. So eventually, I want to paint scenes from those locations with the pigments native to that place. Even the …
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Art Goals | Life Goals, and my Word of the Year – Wild Ozark 2023
The image associated with this post is a single screech owl, but two photos taken successively. In one shot the owls’s eyes were closed and in the other they were open. So I put them together because there’s a lot of symbolism in there that applies to my approach for 2023 art goals and life …
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Am I a Tonalist? I think so, when it comes to landscapes.
It’s always been hard for me to categorize my art, because the colors look different than a lot of contemporary art I see. So I began looking at historical works and styles and I think I’ve found something – a style of painting called Tonalism. Distinguishing characteristics of this kind of painting include limited palette …
Am I a Tonalist? I think so, when it comes to landscapes. Read More »
