Palm Bark Masks: New Ganesha Update

[» air]

I found a segment of palm bark near my house some months back and thought it would make a nice mask.

Four or five painting sessions later it is finally done.  I may still adorn it with antlers or other decorative bits in the future.

 

The first session was quite long.  I listened to five episodes of Carl Sagan's Cosmos and the movie Slacker on hulu.com while I worked.

This is the first time in a long time that I have busted out the paints and I must say even though I am kooky for the digital process there is

something very gratifying about having an actual physical thing to work on.  It was exciting to wake up and see it sitting there looking back at me.

 

 

 The nose was giving me trouble but the second session saw the problem resolved and some spirals showed up.

Also, after using only Raw Umber for so long adding pure black and white really made it start to pop.

 

 

 After some mistakes I had to sand it a little and lay down more paint to correct them and it began to get darker.

It's hard to judge scale looking at these images but it is a nice size: 31" x 10" x 8"

 

 

[» erik]

It's very cool. Do antlers for sure.

 

 

[» markscholey]

Awesome work here Air. Has a great vibe to this... fusing nature with the creative process. The way this look sums up how I imagined Treebeard to be when I read Lord of the Rings as a kid.  How big is this piece?

[» dmaniac]

I really love to watch the progression of your follow-through of the nature patterns. Barely noticeable in the beginning they become more prominent as you bring them out and use them to create art. This is one of the most enjoyable art forms, when Nature (even in disposed form) gives you hints of lines and shapes to ponder. The rest is up to us! Great work Air! "Ship it" he-he

[» Rychard]

Treebeard for sure, such empathy in the eyes… Great work!

[» s'pherco]

Super cool!  Are you going to do more of these?  I'd love to see the original. 

[» air]

Glad you are diggin' em 

 

On my way to the gym this morning I saw a city crew pruning palm trees in my neighborhood and picked up

three more pieces of bark, two small and one big fatty.  I am stoked to start another one soon.  It would be cool to see

a room full of them or even better a garden. I'll have photo records of their creation but the new ones will most likely be gifted or sold.

[» agape]

you gave me an idea--painting on dead trees as a permacultural art installation.

i think a garden full of these is the appropriate display space... or if indoors, with living plant allies.

 

good to see gaian art spirits being revived on pod!

[» phong]

Thanks for keeping track of the WIP ~

I love this!

 

[» st.even]

so gorgeous air...  i love his natural grain look.

[» air]

Thanks again. Here's number two!

This one was even more blissy to work on as I seeme to have

found a flow with the paints again for the first time in a  many moons.

 

Pencil first then on to brown and gray markers for a subtle evolotion and then to raw umber acrylics, sometimes mixed with a bit of ivory black.

 

 

At this point I got the idea to use another piece of bark as a cap

to the stem I seemed to be painting on and a mushroom was born.

 

 

 

Then more black in the umber to cut in shapes followed by mixing in white to  pop them out some.

 

 

 

 

I decided the cap should be red so obviously the eyes had to match!

 

 

 

Then I finished up the cap, added the ring (annulus)

and cut the extra bark off the top and attached the cap.

 

 

 

The bark pieces are rounded, nowhere near flat, so each photo differs depending on the angle.

 

[» phong]

Yes! I love the beveled orb eyes on the bark mushroom spirit.

True tribal novelty at work.

[» Tagme]

Holy Wow! This new mushroom bark piece is amazing! I dig this new medium. The detail is phenomenal. I can't help but wonder how it might look if the details were carved in then painted.