FALLING LEAVES--WASHED AWAY
ACRYLICS ON CEDAR W/RED OAK FRAME
FALL 2017

     The first good, fall storms recently passed through the Skagit Valley, after a long stretch of dry weather and sunny skies.  We were due for a more typical bluster and downpour, and as if on cue, the winds and rain came.  Many local trees suffered from the storms with limbs down and sadly with a few not surviving the elements.  The wind acted to clear the trees of many of their leaves, covering the ground with a carpet of color.  Of all the trees, the maples continue to paint nature’s most vivid pictures of autumn splendor.  Their brilliant colors in shades of red, orange and yellow fill the autumn scene.  To commemorate this special time of the year, I painted falling maple leaves being swept away by a rushing, water-filled stream below.  Once again, inspiration for my designs came from the Japanese Rimpa School.  Ogata Korin’s famous screen Red and White Plum Blossoms is the inspiratiom for my flowing water.  Additionally, many Rimpa artists from Sakai Hoitsu to Suzuki Kiitsu painted maple trees and they all indirectly inspired my work.  I made the frame out of red oak using pegged, hand-joined, mortise-and-tenon construction methods.  I used the Japanese technique (shou-sugi-ban) of charring and oiling the oak to finish the frame.
 
DIMENSIONS:           HEIGHT:  14 5/8 inches
                                    WIDTH:  26 7/8 inches

                                                                   PRICE $500
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Sakai Hoitsu maple scroll

Suzuki Kiitsu maple fan

Ogata Korin Red and White Plum Blossoms