Painting wild places...

It is with some regret that I announce the sale of the last mandala that I still had in my possession. I am happy for the friend who purchased it, and it will remain here in Saranac Lake, but I'm sad to see it go.

If you are unfamiliar with this aspect of my work, it was a very unique style of art that I developed 20 years ago. First of all, I'd always been drawn to the visual design of Tibetan mandalas, which I learned about in college. Symmetrically balanced, concentric circles and squares, they normally are filled with Buddhist symbols and icons. One definition I've seen of a Tibetan mandala is that it is a graphic representation of the spiritual universe. Sometimes they are painted, sometimes created with color sand.

I basically took the geometric structure of the mandala and I started doing paintings in which I filled the spaces with images of MY spiritual universe - the Adirondacks. 

You can see all the mandalas I've produced by clicking on the Mandala link in the menu on my website. 

This last one, "The Nature of the Place", was created in 2011 for a special group show at the Adirondack Artists Guild Gallery. The theme was "Mapping the Familiar". Artists were invited to design or create some kind of visual representation of a place we are familiar with.

I chose to create a mandala about Saranac Lake. This was initially done as a black and white ink drawing. For the show, each artist was to reproduce their image as a limited edition print. We would each receive a portfolio that contained the collection of images produced. Afterwards, I decided to recreate my mandala as a watercolor painting.

The version you see was done on a full sheet of Arches watercolor paper. In the center is Baker Mountain - which is located right in the village of Saranac Lake. Bordering Baker are leaves from 4 common deciduous trees in the Adirondacks: birch, beech, sugar maple and striped maple. Surrounding them are 4 common wildflowers: painted trillium, snake-mouth orchid, sheep laurel, and grass pink orchid. Within the multi-colored, traditional Tibetan “ring of wisdom” are local panoramic views: McKenzie Mountain from the Saranac River; the Seward Range from Second Pond; the High Peaks from Oseetah Lake: and McKenzie from Lower Saranac Lake. The large top landscape is a view from Mt. Pisgah, another village mountain, overlooking Lower Saranac Lake and on to the west towards Tupper Lake.  The bottom image is the view from Baker looking towards Scarface and the High Peaks beyond. In the painted birch bark and twig border, honoring the rustic Adirondack crafts of the area, are the four main conifers here: black spruce, tamarack, white pine and hemlock, and in the corners, feathers from 4 common bird species. The nature of the place.

Will I paint any more mandalas? I don't know. I stopped because they were very detailed and time consuming and had to be done in the studio. I don't think anyone else in the world has painted mandalas like mine! But I've fallen in love with plein air painting, where I can be outdoors in the Adirondacks and paint at the same time. Maybe in the winter I will reconsider the mandala format. What do you think?