When Heaven and Nature Sing

Join me!  When Heaven and Nature Sing, a show of thirty-six paintings from One-Hundred Flowers is showing at Palette Contemporary Art and Craft in Albuquerque, New Mexico this December.

“Sun Pop” is one of thirty-six paintings in “When Heaven and Nature Sing” at Palette in Albuquerque this month.

While not much of a churchgoer, I do attend a service at my neighborhood church on Christmas Eve to sing the old songs by candlelight.  Joy to the World, is a regular on the roster.  The refrain, “and heaven and nature sing,” always gets me wondering . . . What is the relationship between heaven and nature in the song?  Can you explain it using color?

“Saber,” “Rethinking the Fossil Record,” ” Kewpie,” and “Juicy,” each is encaustic and ink on panel, 5″ x 4″

One Hundred Flowers is a series of paintings based on botanical subjects where I aim to balance abandon with order by putting loose, gesture drawings of organic, botanical forms through a series of refining steps.

“Kewpie,” encaustic and ink on panel, 5″ x 4″

Within each individual piece, I tend to go for analogous or tonal colors.  My goal is to arrive at a finished piece where the original subject is distilled to an essence, clarified, and transformed.

“Bean,” encaustic, ink and gold leaf on panel, 5″ x 4″

But the series as a whole contains a mix of analogous and complementary hues. The thirty-six pieces below are available at Palette starting today through the end of the month.  Call or email gallery director Kurt Nelson for more information.