In Progress Studio Images for the Painting "Exploring the Blue of Distance"

It's been a long winter in the city making me ready for the summer hikes and backpacking trips that fuel my creativity. Despite this feeling of being stuck I still have found my own ways of "Walking in the Wilderness" without being in the nature. On a sunny day (which is rare for Portland) I find myself starring into the sky. The blue is always endless as if I could spend my entire life wondering into that distance.

My Observations of the Sky

When I started my research for this painting I was surprised to read that Rebecca Solnit was also spending a lot of time thinking about the sky. In her book "A Field Guild to Getting Lost" she explains her feeling of the sky in a theory she calls "The Blue of Distance". For Solnit the color blue represents a space which is unreachable and yet desirable. She explains in the book, "blue the color that represents the spirt, the sky, and water, the immaterial and the remote, so that however tactile and close-up it is, it is always about distance and disembodiment."page 159

My practice includes a lot of time mixing color. Here you will see an image of my palette for the painting "Exploring the Blue of Distance".

An in progress image of "Exploring the Blue of Distance" painting  

Exploring the Blue of Distance
Oil on Canvas
38in x45.4in
Feb 2016

To view more images visit my website http://www.meganwainwright.com/
To view more of my work in progress visit my instagram @roaming_creator

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Oil Painter and Printmaker Inspired to Make Images of Nature

I paint landscapes that are documenting my experiences with the northwest wilderness. To structure my images I use resources of sketches, writings, photographs, and found materials from my hikes or backpacking trips. Through the process of manipulating an image, a different kind of representation occurs. By using abstraction, I investigate new ways of seeing nature.

As I walked into the wilderness I entered a moment of being more aware of the simple forest. In the surroundings mountains extended for miles both directions and wrapped around my body. I looked up and saw the tall Douglas Fir Trees with branches that made shapes of various triangles. Than I glanced down at the decayed natural materials that created an asymmetrical pattern beneath my moving feet. When making the images I let myself get lost and trust my instinct. Rather than creating a photorealistic image, I make an illusion that brings the viewer to unexpected realms of imagination.