This raven painting is my largest painting yet. The substrate is a birch board with three coats of white gesso. All of the colored pigments are Ozark and locally foraged, but I use purchased titanium white pigment to make a white paint.
Detour for a Thirsty Raven
We don’t have ravens here in Arkansas, but we have crows with a lot of personality. I wish we had ravens, though, so I painted one to hang around and be mischievous in my studio. At least until it finds a forever home with someone out there.
Happy Accidents
The title itself is an accident, because I didn’t come up with that until writing this blog post. Once I put the title of the post down, I thought that would make a great title for the painting, too. Until then, I had plain old ‘Thirsty Raven’ in mind.
While I was blocking in color for the background, which I intended to just be a blurred blend of color with no form, I saw a form taking shape. It was a very very rough sort of form, but nonetheless enough to give me an idea. And so I refined the lines a little, dabbed more color, and suddenly a beer cellar appeared! I love happy accidents like that.
But after looking at them for a little while, and calling hubs in to give his opinion, I decided to turn the barrels around so the ends are out instead. I like it a lot better now. He also pointed out that I’d forgotten to put a tap on the spigot. Definitely needed to add one of those.
Raven Painting in progress
Some details
Where to see it?
It’s on display at my gallery/studio in Alpena right now. I’m only there on Saturdays, but I’m willing to run out there anytime with some notice to open up the studio and show it to you.
Is it for sale?
It is! I’ve also got archival prints and notecards available. Click through the listing below to see all of the options.
A Little About My Paint-making Process
Since my paints are handmade and (mostly) locally foraged, I have to make sure I have the colors I need before I begin a project. If it’s a plant pigment, then I’ll need to harvest the plant and process it to make the pigment. The only plant sources I use at this time are thyme, and the root bark of Osage trees. The rest comes from foraged rocks, soot, bone, or purchased lapis and titanium dioxide powder.
Here’s a blog post I made earlier about making oil paints:
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.
I hope you love this earthy palette of color as much as I do! Thanks for reading ~ Madison
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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