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'The Sound of Summer Running' by Maureen Hyde
🕑 Added 2021-02-26 17:00:00 +0000 UTC'The seller of lightning rods arrived just ahead of the storm. He came along the street of Green Town, Illinois, in the late cloudy October day, sneaking glances over his shoulder. Somewhere not so far back, vast lightnings stomped the earth. Somewhere, a storm like a great beast with terrible teeth could not be denied.'
Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury
Maureen Hyde
'The Sound of Summer Running'
Oil on linen, 80x60 cm, 2019
As in any journey, I am an ongoing traveler, but I am also a result of the creative and life experiences accumulated on that road. The journey unfolds, starting with an idea and some preparatory work, and the image becomes clearer as the work evolves. It is important for me that the dialogue remains fresh, open and alive with discovery.
I am fascinated at how nature expresses itself through light, and how light plays on form, while moving through atmosphere and space. The Still Life and Landscape are a means to immerse myself into these studies. My figurative work can be a narrative, but also a portrait, encountering another fellow traveler and delving into their own human expression.
I believe that I use my dialogue with nature, working from life, as a means to express myself, as a poet would use words or a musician would use their instrument to create mood, rhythms and atmosphere.
Thus begins a wonderful novel that both, my husband, Don, and I felt inspired by. I have always been visually stimulated by literature, and this book is rich with images for the imagination to enjoy. I have always loved the season of Autumn, the wind that carries the golden days of summer into the barren cold of winter. Trees show their colourful magnificence as one last shout out before settling into dormancy and a temporary death. My husband also wrote poetry reflecting on this season, and his poem “The Sound of Summer Running,” sparked a desire to visualise it as a painting. I made a rough sketch to see if the idea could become something.
I dressed Don up like what could have been a traveling by foot salesman of lightning rods, and found a landscape I had done in the countryside in the summer time. With a little imagination, I turned the bright sunny day of a dusty road going to a sunflower field, into a day with moody dark clouds. Taking out some charcoal and chalk, I roughed out a concept on some toned paper that is extremely easy to erase. I usually allow myself the luxury of a poorly done drawing, so I am not constrained by technique to get a composition going that expresses my visual intent. That way, I can also play with some rhythms and movements. I leave the practical problem solving for later.
I decide that the poem’s name “The Sound of Summer Running” would be a good title.
I consider a painting to be journey (for better or for worse), and therefore the destination is always somewhat of a mystery, and the adventures along the way are often unpredicted. It could also be considered a conversation, which can develop along surprising lines. The model comes to my studio and mounts the stand, dressed as closely as I can to what I want from this character I am portraying. I sit down in a chair, which enables me to have a low horizon line, and commence to develop a transfer drawing with charcoal to fit the canvas I plan to use.
After transferring, I just start to paint, and aside from proportions and placement, I ignore staying within the outlines, and using a large brush get some paint on the canvas. The conversation has begun, and the first pass looks like...
The stray dog was pulled out of my head at some point, and then disappeared as I could not figure out how to get a model so the dog would not look like a cartoon. For the figure, I had his arm propped up so he could hear the distant thunder, and using a mannikin for the hat, coat and flying scarf… the model could take a break. Fishing line and safety pins helped with getting the windy affect, and I pinned some leaves along the backdrop, which was a cold grey cloth on a screen.
For awhile I had a poor simulation of lightning rods peeking out of a cloth bag, that I converted into an old leather bag. I painting them in the painting, quickly realizing that not many people even know what they are, and would not recognize these rods with glass colored balls. They are removed. He becomes just a wayfarer traveling down a soft country road.
The concept is locking down into an image I just have to paint. The light in my studio comes from a skylight facing north, and because it is a skylight, it could be outdoors on a cloudy day. In order to enhance the mood of an about-to-be stormy day, I use an extremely limited palette, adding just a few more colors at the approaching end. I like to work with a chosen set of primaries for a long time during the painting. I am then free to change my mind as I go, and no matter if they mix in the process, they will still harmonize. I feel at a certain point with these more involved projects, that they have a life of their own, and it takes some time, understanding, experimenting and adjusting before I have a clearer idea as to where this journey is taking me. If the trees are painted with the same colors as the sky, then the leaves can flutter and blow without mudding up the background. It gives the whole painting a softness, that allows me to choose where I need for somethings to be more specific and others more suggestive.
I don’t know what I wished to convey, but I think what I got from working on this is that one cannot expect the outcome one envisions at the beginning of the journey. I identify with wonderers and realize that it has all been a journey on a road that never ends. Whatever I am chasing is always just out of reach. A leaf at the mercy of a capricious wind.
Photo by: Jason V Lu
More about Maureen:
Maureen Hyde is a fine art painter and Principal Instructor at The Florence Academy of Art, based in Florence, Italy. Maureen's interest in visual stories dates back to her childhood, and ultimately led to an MFA at the University of California at Los Angeles, and a career in book illustration. However, she followed her fascination with the beautiful rhythms of light on form to The Florence Academy of Art where she is now a Principle Instructor in the Intensive Drawing and Painting Programs.
See more of Maureen’s work at:
www.florenceacademyofart.com/alumni_gallery/maureen-hyde
www.instagram.com/maureenehyde
Comments
Thank for sharing your methods and thoughts. It helps bring one into the intricacies of your creative process as much as it brings out the appreciation for the final product. Bellissimo.
