The beautiful Felkins creek is located in Madison county AR. These rocky shores supply me with many of the rocks I use to make my paints. This photo is one of the favorites I’ve ever captured at a particular spot that always draws my eye. I’m going to attempt to capture it in a painting.
The Luminance
I don’t know yet how to portray the luminance you see in this photo. It’s hard to capture even with a camera, unless there’s backlighting. So, if ever I learn how to do it with the pigments I’ve foraged, I’ll come back to this and try it again. If there’s any one technique that will drive me to take a class, this would be it. I really want to know how to do that. In the meantime, I’ll study great artists who share their techniques online.
The Felkins Creek Focus
The rocky foreground is the focal point. Felkins creek is very rocky, and I’ve yet to do a good job painting the rocks into a scene. This will be good practice.
Progress So Far
A study
This small one is a study for a larger one I want to do next. I think it would be a nice scene for a 24 x 36″ painting, or at least a 16 x 20″.
A Little About My Process
Since my paints are handmade and locally foraged, I have to make sure I have the colors I need before I begin a project. If I’m close to out of one, then I’ll go look for the rock that gives me the color I need. If it’s a plant pigment, then I’ll need to harvest the plant. The only three plant sources I use at this time are indigo, thyme, and the root bark of Osage trees. The rest comes from rocks, soot, bone, or purchased titanium dioxide powder.
So, if it’s a rock, then I’ll break it to smaller pieces, then crush it as finely as I can. The crushed rock is the raw pigment. After that I put the powder into a jar and fill the jar with water. Depending on the source rock, I’ll either pour off the colored water into another jar to let it settle, or pour the rinse water out and keep the sediment for the paint. After the water clarifies and the pigment has settled, then I pour off the clear water and let the sediment dry. That is what I’ll make the paint from.
When it comes to plants, there’s more chemistry involved. I’ll make what is called a ‘lake’ pigment. Here’s a post that gives more information on that process.
Contact Mad Rox: (479) 409-3429 or madison@madisonwoods and let me know which hat I need to put on 🙂 Madison for art, Roxann for real estate, lol. Or call me Mad Rox and have them both covered!
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Author/Artist Info
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Roxann Riedel is a salesperson for Montgomery Whiteley Realty, artist, owner of the only ginseng nursery in Arkansas, and the author of books and this website. Madison Woods is the pen-name she uses for her creative works. She’s a self-taught artist who moved to the Ozarks from south Louisiana in 2005. Her paintings of the Ozark-inspired scenes feature lightfast pigments from Madison county, Arkansas. Her inspiration is nature – the beauty, and the inherent cycle of life and death, destruction and regeneration. Wild Ozark is also the only licensed ginseng nursery in Arkansas. Here’s the link for more information on the nursery
There’s always a discount for paintings on the easel 😉
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