Palm Tree Ballet or Tree Dancing Seascapes
Last week-end, I painted Palm Tree Ballet #1 - I was inspired by a local palm tree in the wind as I drove to work. It grabbed my imagination because it reminded me of a ballet dancer who is so very graceful and flowing with the music … well … the palm tree was flowing with the wind and the two just kind of merged into this painting for me.
The very idea of trees dancing captivates me right now so I have begun a series of watercolor paintings. As expected, they will be the Palm Tree Ballet Series - they will not all be inspired by ballet dancers but by dancing in general … the first reminded me of a ballet dancer … but the word ballet covers dancers of all varieties as a grace of movement idea.
I painted Palm Tree Ballet #2 this week-end. I did not plan for a stormy look to the painting … though we have had a bunch of rain, thunder and lightning here this week-end …. (today, it was as dark at noon as if it were 8 PM at nite due to the pouring down rain - I was really glad when it quit but it re-started off & on all day - the puppy got me up at 6:30 AM to the rain) … I did not want to paint an actual sky and ocean behind the tree … the plan was to suggest it using sky & sea colors because the tree was my focal point and what I wanted to concentrate on capturing was the spirit of the tree dancing. This one reminds me of a tropical island hula dancer waving her long hair and positioning her hands while her grass skirt has not started moving much yet.
When you need to find new inspiration for your paintings to be fresh and fun … look at your surroundings and people in a new way … then portray your subject of choice in that new way … until I painted the first palm tree with flowing palm fronds (or leaves) if you will … which really is not exactly how they really look at all … I had never put dancing and trees together in the same thought before.
Yet … I remember learning to dance and not moving my feet at all at first while watching my sister & brother-in-law showing me the steps … I was just a teen-ager swaying with the music … trees are anchored to the earth … yet they sway in the wind softly while gentle breezes waft through their branches and leaves … or the branches and even sometimes the tree trunk … stand straight out like strung electric wires in gale force winds.
Watercolors are very well suited to experimenting with new ideas such as trees dancing, buildings developing faces, animals metamorphisising into people or prairie grasses becoming aliens from outer space. Open your mind to new ways of seeing and thinking … listen to the weather and how it sounds then translate it into pictures in your paintings.
