I’m still in Iceland, trying to dissect the landscape by considering just small portions of it at a time: the colors and shapes of the pebbles on which I’m walking, the yellow dandelions growing amidst the black volcanic rock.

The landscape as a whole continues to elude me in its enormity. Here’s a photo, but imagine that this landscape surrounds you 360º.

Looking at the landscape, what grabs my attention every time is the insistent and ever-present horizon line, but my efforts with that may have to wait until I’m back in my studio with large-scale materials at hand. I have ideas…

In the meantime, I made the happy discovery of a can of outdoor acrylic paint that is very close to the color I’ve been using in my studio on the large-scale figurative paintings.  It also happens to be the color of this barn at which I’m working, and I have a generous pile of cardboard too.  I’m in my element, surrounded by mixed-media supplies. I started some pieces while thinking about the horizon line, but they turned into more of a meditation on my immediate surroundings, echoing the colors and shapes around me.

Barn-Horizon (I), paint, local pebbles, chalk, cardboard, 2.5″ x 23″, © 2014 Barbara Downs, Photo by Barbara Downs

Barn-Horizon (II), paint, chalk, cardboard, 12″ x 17″, © 2014 Barbara Downs, Photo by Barbara Downs