I recently finished a painting set at the Kings river which is down our road. Wild Ozark is a few more miles down the dirt road away from pavement than the bridge, but we cross it every time we go to town. Usually, that’s once or twice a week, though if I could manage to whittle it down to once a month I think I’d be delighted. But I get a lot of nature art inspiration from my travels down our dirt road.
Anyway, in that series of paintings, I’ve made three featuring the same landscape during a different season. The first one was the winter scene, and it was also the first significant oil painting I’d done. After finishing the Spring scene and painting several other subjects in between, I painted the Autumn scene a week or so ago. That one is so far my favorite of the Kings River scenes. But somewhere along the way, I decided to throw out the first one and so now there are only two of the river scenes so far.
For the third one, the summer scene, I’m going to put a kingfisher in the foreground, similar to the perspective I used for the heron in the autumn scene. But the kingfisher won’t be flying. He’ll be sitting on the line that stretches over the other side of the river. I’m not sure yet what I’ll do for the second attempt at the winter scene.
Nature Art Inspiration
There’s no shortage of things to inspire me out here. Every time I drive in or out to pavement, I see things I want to paint. Even just stepping outside the door fills my senses with possibilities. But the Kings River is the grandest of the landscapes I am endeavoring to master. In this video, I’ll introduce you to that major nature art inspiration. And at the end I’ll show you the two paintings so far that were born of my love for this spot.
Nature Inspired Artwork
The autumn scene is called Shadows & Mist. It’s the one featured in the title card for the video above. The original is sold already, but prints and notecards are available. The spring scene is simply Kings River in Spring. Original, prints, and notecards are available for that one.
Here’s where you can learn more about my series of Kings River paintings.
And, if you like art books, there’s a photo of the spring scene in my brand new The Soul of the Ozarks 2023 volume.
ABOUT
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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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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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