I have a completed painting titled “August Mountains” that measures 11.25″ x 15″. It is painted on primed canvas mounted on a custom wood panel. There is a wire attached on the back so it is ready to hang. The painting was made through a contemplative and artistic practice explored during the period between selection for the project and the submission date.

I have several spots in Roanoke where I like to set up to paint. I go to one of these spots by car and set up my french easel and outdoor studio gear. For this particular painting, “August Mountains” I set up in on the 3rd floor of a parking garage on Williamson Road near Elmwood Park. I had a beautiful view of the mountains- they were so blue green in August. The building in the painting is a Physicians to Women building near the ramp on highway 581.

This quote from Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek comes to mind about the mountains in Roanoke: “Mountains are giant, restful, absorbent. You can heave your spirit into a mountain and the mountain will keep it, folded, and not throw it back as some creeks will.” (p. 3) I felt this reassuring sense of sturdiness while painting these mountains in the parking garage.

While painting I also thought of this quote: “The answer must be, I think, that beauty and grace are performed whether or not we will or sense them. The least we can do is try to be there.” Here, Dillard so acutely describes the value in bearing witness to nature- that it is so good to tune into the beautiful song of the cosmos that plays in nature all around us whether we choose to pay attention or not.

When I’m painting I like to imagine that what I’m seeing are masses of shapes and lines. The items in the visual world lose their names. When I get in this mindset I feel like I can be more receptive to whatever the motif has to say. Lately, it feels like nature is speaking more concisely– in very simple designs that also feel symbolic.

For “August Mountains” I saw the line of the sky against the mountains as a particular set of curves. I looked for a pattern in the overcast sky and the shadows beneath the clouds. I simplified the buildings to be three dimensional blocks- to be seen in contrast with the organic forms in the mountains and foliage. I made a careful study of the values in sky and the road so that the lightest value is in the sky between two of the mountains. I wanted to capture that feeling that the sky is reflected in the color of the road and colors in the trees, and the colors of the building. The world feels like a mirror where everything lives in an envelope of air that is has a particular color and mood.

I read the text about two years ago and so it’s the memory of it that stays with me. What I mostly remember is Dillard’s admiration and curiosity while being in nature. She had an ego-lessness to her in this pursuit that felt just wonderful to participate in as a reader. That wide-eyed approach is what I keep in mind while I’m painting.

Page 266- “Come on, I say to the creek, surprise me; and it does, with each new drop. Beauty is real. I would never deny it; the appalling thing is that I forget it.”

In painting “August Mountains,” I experienced a similar call and response feeling that Dillard articulates in the above quote. I asked the landscape about itself and it surprised me with a sense of cosmic order and pattern.

Questions that arise from making “August Mountains” alongside Dillard’s text:

How will observation and design work together on a larger scale? I hope to try to make large paintings out in the landscape on site and to continue to experiment with design and observed color.

A question comes from this quote: (cited in a previous answer) “The answer must be, I think, that beauty and grace are performed whether or not we will or sense them. The least we can do is try to be there.” What images will come from painting at night? I may try to paint at night or twilight to bear witness to the beauty in varying times of day and season. Dillard’s devotion to witnessing the landscape is something I hope to continue to carry with me in my painting practice.

I’m learning more and more about trusting my own eye. When I ask the landscape a question like- Will you surprise me?- I have to tune my intuition to hear the response and allow that response to make itself known in my particular voice.