Natural Law

The words in this piece read: "Nature is not a biologist. Nature is a revolutionary comic poet."

This is an odd little piece. I feel an inexplicable connection to this bemused turtle. He looks like he might have some good stories to tell. I painted him against black, as opposed to giving him a natural landscape setting because I wanted him to function as a symbol or an icon. This piece continues my interest in the subtle inclusion of language in art with a pair of sentences painted in tiny letters across the lower half of the painting. They read, "Nature is not a biologist." And, "Nature is a revolutionary comic poet." This utterly unique painting is sure to inspire unexpected daydreams wherever you display it. I am hopeful my turtle friend will amuse some fellow nature lover out there for years to come.

Natural Law evolved or several days. I began by priming the canvas panel with black acrylic gesso. Next, I painted a bold expressionist abstract filled with strong reds and oranges. I used a dental tool to "engrave" a square window into the wet paint. And a paint scraper to clear the color and texture from the window. I then covered the surface with an intermediate painting. An expressionist mix of shades of blue. When that layer was almost fully dried, I used my paint scraper to abrade the surface and scuffed up the blue to allow hot spots of red to show through. Then, after it had dried completely, I used a soft cloth to rub shades of green across the entire piece. I rubbed black along the edges and used a brush to paint the "window" black. And I finished the piece using small detail brushes to paint the quirky turtle and the words.