Saturday, May 21, 2011

Beauty and Diversity in McCurtain County, southeastern Oklahoma

We interviewed Quintus Herron, a pioneer of sustainable forestry in Idabel as well as the founder of the Museum of the Red River with his wife Mary. We will show more production stills and talk about Quintus's tree farms in a future blog.
Quintus showed us around the beautiful property where he lives with wildflower meadows and and an arboretum of diverse trees. Here are a few pictures with more to come later. This blog is about some of the beauty I saw that inspired me for future work in my studio. I shoot with a still camera not as an end in itself but as a reference and starting point for my drawings/paintings.


Lacy cypress fronds


Quintus's cypress swamp on his beautiful preserve property


I took lots of shots of this river birch on Quintis's land for a future tree painting. I love the peeling, curling bark.


There are palmetto mounds in McCurtain County.


There are lots of boggy spots and I made the mistake of going into the woods off the road to see more palmetto and was instantly attacked by the largest mass of mosquitos I have ever experienced. I high-tailed it out of there!

Here are some closeups of patterns and textures of pots and textiles from the Museum of the Red River that I found inspiring. In a later blog you will get more of a sense of this wonderful museum from wide shots and also from the large collection in storage as well as on display. As you will see I love pattern and design.



The intricate design is stunning.


As well as the beautiful form......


Creek Seminole Shoulder Bag
I used some of these patterns for a series of paintings I did including tropical plants and mixed media.
See "Epiphytes", "Flower of the Fruit" and "Birds of Paradise" at the above link.


Choctaw Shoulder Bag


An African Pot with wonderful texture. I believe Henry Moy said this was a water pot?????
Ouchhhhhh.....



These are two closeups are from long scrolls made of Waxed Cloth from Quizhow, China. I love all the detail and pattern work.
















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