DRAWING AND PAINT

For those who wish to link themselves and their choices of art to literally all mankind, nature paintings are the answer.  Who among us is not from nature and has not had nature in their life, even if they live in the concrete jungle of the big city?  Even in such a sophisticated milieu, the touch of nature is sought by city planners who design streets with quick-growing trees and flower boxes upon storefronts.  Planners are people-wise and they know that a completely barren cityscape is anathema to the mind of the average person who yearns for a touch of green foliage in his daily life, though he may not realize the longing.  Such planners realize that to be optimally productive, the person must see nature in any form in their work environment as well as their home environment.  Many is the office cubicle with a hanging plant that is tenderly nurtured by a staff busy with the trappings of making a business successful.  A nature painting is much less trouble than a plant and reaches more people because of its scope.

Nature paintings can range from an O’Keeffe depiction of a glorious flower in full bloom to the detailed landscape of a member of the Hudson River school of America, yet abstract paintings of nature can likewise fill the yearning of our souls for the touch of nature that makes our days bearable.  How many of us would gather around an abstract painting of a desert, picking out the mysterious winding canyons with their red sandstone colors and maize striations in the walls of the ravine undercut by a long-ago flood?  Simply engaging in that behavior is an activity that melds like minds and makes for a congenial working camaraderie.  The use of nature art as a binding force upon a group of colleagues is not to be underestimated.

And don’t allow the earth to be your boundary when choosing a nature painting!  Nature includes other planets, as well.  Journeying through nebulae and asteroid fields, swooping down upon the numerous planets that have been discovered in recent years as they spin around distant stars, the scope of the term ‘nature painting’ has grown to encompass outer space.  At the other end of the spectrum, inner space, or microscopic art, can be said to be a form of nature painting and certainly has many intriguing shapes and colors.  What of the delicate strands of algae that enable our earth to manufacture oxygen and keep us in the loop of life?  Those life-giving bits of gossamer green have a beauty all their own.  If you can hang a picture of interwoven green and blue algae and find a sofa and wall color to match, you will have created a unique office or home environment for yourself, your loved ones, or colleagues in which to bask and refresh the mind.  It sounds soothing to even think about, doesn’t it?  So get busy and choose an artistic piece to foster that sense of peace and intellectual repose that such a retreat would engender.  You can’t go wrong with a nature painting.