NEW WORKS AND WORKS ON THE EASEL

"AFTER THE FLOOD"
"WORK IN PROGRESS"


     Historically, the Kickapoo River at Gays Mills, Wisconsin has flooded regularly. Depending on the season, crops are destroyed, wildlife is lost as are domestic animals. These natural disasters have also taken their toll on the residents of Gays Mills many times over the past century. The residents, however, have the rural tenacity to repair, raise or rebuild in order to remain in their beloved homes. This painting was conceived after a recent flood that affected most of the community including the old Congregational church, the door of which is portrayed here.

After The Flood, Detail

After The Flood, Detail 2
Acrylic on Panel 20" x 30" Painting in Progress

"CECROPIA MOTH'   (Hyalophora cecropia)

CECROPIA MOTH DETAIL

Beginning the Painting. The initial drawing of the Cecropia is carefully rendered from a mounted specimen in the artist's insect collection. In order to portray a living specimen the moth must be 'relaxed', or re-hydrated in order to relax the muscles and recreate a natural resting position.

After lightly painting the basic structure of the moth, the technique of pointillism was used to layer in the wings. Pointillism means painting with small dots of pigment. Once an area was covered in dots, another layer of dots of a lighter or darker color was painted on top of the first layer. This was repeated many times. The technique was used to to give the illusion of tiny wing scales. The total number of individual dots was in the tens of thousands.

The Cecropia moth, painted life size, was originally going to be a simple vignette with minimal background, however Michael became fascinated with a small section of moss covered limestone outcrop along his township road. Walking past this location from late winter through late spring on daily walks with his golden retrievers he noted the daily plant growth and seasonal color changes under different light conditions. This changed the original simple exercise in painting into something a little more complex.

The predominant plants in the painting are Virgin's Bower, Virginia Creeper and Wood Strawberry, a non-native strawberry with small conical fruits. Unfortunately it has little flavor

Cecropia Moth  Acrylic on Board  20" x 24"   SOLD

"Io Moth on the Plinking Tree"

Acrylic on Board  8" x 10"  Original Painting is Available, Please Inquire