Welcome to April 2022! Real Spring colors have been a bit slow to develop this year, perhaps due in part to the cool(er) and blustery weather we’ve had.
So I decided to use my imagination, and the tools of “JJ’s (virtual) Studios” to create my own dream of Spring warmth and shimmering colors of tree and field - with the Blue Ridge Mountains standing in their ancient vigilance on the horizon - in this piece titled “Dreaming of a Shenandoah Spring”:
As I have noted elsewhere, graphics tools simulate painting techniques in many ways that make it “easier” to project desired visual effects (or even to discover - sometimes accidentally - new kinds of effects). Still, this assistance engenders new artistic efforts along with the flexibility it brings. The digital artist is still inspired and challenged to bring forth a synthetic reality, an expression of beauty, from the elements of light and color that are the material of his or her work. As a serious creative effort, digital art entails its own kind of intensity, concentration, difficulty, and frequent experimentation, rough drafts, and half-finished “failures.” Even the apparent advantage of the “easy” availability of so many materials and stylistic elements can complicate the process of judging the combinations and subtleties that best realize the artist’s own creative intuition.
Nature, by contrast, has a wonder-filled givenness and simplicity that have an inexhaustible capacity to inspire and amaze the heart. And Spring is stirring and emerging in nature too, and I’m happen to waken from my dreams to its freshness:
