Oak Eyes [3×2 Collage]

“Oak Eyes [3x2 Collage]” [28th November 2025] by Matt The Unfathomable Artist, digital artwork — “Oak Eyes [3×2 Collage]” [28th/29th November 2025] by Matt The Unfathomable Artist, digital artwork, 9000 x 8170 pixels.

I made an entire first draft for “Oak Eyes [3×2 Collage]” within one hour.

The Resonant Land

Does the landscape hold consciousness?

In “Oak Eyes” I have stripped away the expected greens and browns of the English countryside to reveal a heightened chromatic vibrancy, an amalgamation of ideas brought into focus.

This digital piece grew from two realities: the standing, living history of an English Oak and the exposed inner secrets of a large felled branch. By fusing these states through digital collage, I created a synthesis of the living and the repurposed.

Icy blues and blazoned horizon settle into a steady awareness, repeated into a 3×2 grid that beautifully echoes both film frames and pop art history. My subconscious naturally draws upon interconnected themes, like an artisanal builder selecting the finest materials.

For me, the work asks the viewer to sense a quiet guardianship, a calm defiance against habitat destruction.

Process & The Architecture of Sight

The image began with the immensely pleasurable action of photography in the field on my nature walk of 25th November. Six unique compositions, three of which have already produced artistic output.

Let’s give you wonderful visuals to picture the scene of my nature walk here, shall we:

King James VI & I Oak of 1612 on 25th November 2025.

This tree and nature reserve with all its wildlife has fascinated me as otters to the sculptor.

Cross-section of its fallen branch on 25th November 2025.

Image includes my size 13 UK field boots. Fit for British weather, so they are.

[sidequest #1 if you wish, for dessert afterwards: “James VI & I Oak of Meadows Midst”]

Standing in Wildflower Meadow facing North-West to the 1612 Oak on 25th November 2025 — Standing in *Wildflower Meadow* facing North-West to the 1612 Oak on 25th November 2025.

Did mud and soil ever look so glorious?

King James VI & I Oak of 1612 at the trunk, viewed upwards on 25th November 2025.

All nineteen feet and five inches in circumference, measured in 2020. An oaken majesty indeed.

Corner, North-East of Wildflower Meadow at the rusted cart on 25th November 2025.

Just look at that wizened, spiralling branch, mid-left. Lower-right my shadow appears as a hand or rabbit eyes [sidequest #2].

[further sidequests #3 and #4 for afters if you wish, one of my earlier sketched works “Rusted Cart of the Nature Reserve” and additional photography in Conservation – Local Nature Reserve]

In the meantime, let’s return to the digital artwork of our blog article, “Oak Eyes [3×2 Collage]”..

.. the first input source for my 3×2 Collage is the 1612 Oak in landscape, ancient and gnarled, holding its ground against the weather. Regularly enjoying the oft marshy, water-retaining field I’ve affectionately called King James Meadow (of VI & I fame).

The second input source is the cross-section topology of the manmade cut, fallen branch log, seen above in my photograph. Concentric rings record centuries of growth lines.

This hefty log itself standing exactly where I placed it some years ago, to prop up the wood-and-wire mesh fence; a fence since removed, perhaps for maintenance or to open up the two adjacent fields.

Through digital manipulation, I overlaid the cut timber onto the canopy of the standing tree. The dark central rings duplicated into twin “Eyes” to look out from within the grain. These bring life to the newly formed digital oak work – a human-like quality, a distinguished character.

Colour grading carries the imagination away from literal description. The central canopy shifts into an electric, icy cyan visage while the horizon is ultra-vivid in deep crimson. That reddish horizontal band feels like the passionate heartbeat of the earth. The high blues carry the cold breath of air over ground that seems frost-touched.

It takes the creativity of a painter and the technical precision of digital practice to turn two separate photographs into a multi-layered artistic work.

Visual Reading of “Oak Eyes”

The 3×2 grid transforms a single tree into a coherent, repeating assemblage.

Hollowed Hair: Above the horizon, two forearmed branches reach forward. The ‘Aristolochia gigantea‘s hollowed hair‘ is actually constructed from the upper-right cut infundibulum-like form within the fallen log!

Crimson Orange-Red Eyes: Despite the fiery looking colour of the oak’s eyes, the manner is pleasant and appealing. A warm, inviting nature for a certainty.

Icy Cyan Landscape: The flora and chest area of the trunk provide a sense of coolness — a perfect chromatic foil to the crimson eyes and blazoned horizon.

The Unfathomable Connection

“Oak Eyes” sits within a line of works where I coax an interconnection between the inanimate and human personality.

The work invites the viewer to regard the oak as more warmth than cold — a subtle inversion of colour theory and emotional reading. Eyes also serve as a symbolic oversight: the oak having stood for centuries, holding seasons, weather and human timeframes within its aged circles.

There is a protective quality here too — the sense that the land is watching us through the eyes of the tree, desiring everyone to appreciate its ruddy warmth and attractive gaze.

Assigning human vision brings character. The 1612 Oak is not empty or lifeless; it’s a living organism with a magnanimous, centuries-old story to tell.

What do you see in the gaze of the tree?

Wrens Youngling Oak

First, bracketed commentary from my pre-published social media:

[ I made “Wrens Youngling Oak” in two drafts late evening and then much into the mid-early hours the next day of the 30th.

First draft the entire composition with paint applied direct to the wood panel canvas
My second draft clarified structural elements whilst increasing textural quality, light perception and depth.

Without having made a study or pre-drawing I’m very pleased in comparing the painting to my original photograph taken on the 28th May.

An Impressionist-style painting designed with visually abstract shapes to resemble leaves.

I believe my new acrylic painting is the sixth work attained from this very tree, please see:

Cluster of Oak Leaves

(1) “Cluster of Oak Leaves in Hayfield Meadow – first version – Digital & Print only” [20th July 2022];

(2) “Cluster of Oak Leaves in Hayfield Meadow – third version” [26th July 2022];

(3) “Hayfield Oak Leaves – Original” [12th August 2022];

then two creative photography works amongst The Ten SolarScape Artworks entitled:

The Ten SolarScape Artworks

(4) “Alien Leaves Analysis SolarScape” [20th November 2022] and (5) “Silvery Red Treeline SolarScape” [20th November 2022].

The title for the painting is derived from my works like “Curved Tree at Wren’s Nest Pond – original” [14th March 2022]. The Youngling Oak stands watchfully like an outpost before its natural ecosystem pond. ]

Wrens Youngling Oak is a lush expressive painting of young oak branches in alla prima.

Produced with an accurately layered painting technique from my original photograph, the surface is nicely textured—conveying both the density and vitality of a woodland environment seen in spring or early summer. The swirling greens, radiant in bursts of black, white and bluish brushmarks, evoke a sense of shimmering foliage filtered through fragmented light.

At the compositional core, elongated vertical trunks extend upward and outward, interconnected by branching limbs that disperse through the canvas. These forms, though partially abstracted, suggest a juvenile oak reaching toward maturity. The background finesses into dappled pigment—some smooth, others tumultuous—echoing the living randomness of a wild, managed forest. The white flecks and patches may allude to the presence of blossom, light reflections, or birds mid-flight—wrens perhaps—evoking the title’s poetic imagery.

This work stands in the embrace of impressionism and gestural abstraction, evoking elements of both pointillist texture and spontaneous motion. It neither mimics realism nor entirely distances from same; instead, the painting encompasses the sensation of being immersed—submerged even—within a verdant, living space. The natural concealment of clear figuration draws the viewer closer, encouraging deeper contemplation.

Artistic Notes:

The title Wrens Youngling Oak suggests a personal or ecological narrative. Wrens—modest, energetic songbirds—often symbolize life, resilience, and humbleness, while a “youngling oak” may be a metaphor for strength or growth in both natural and psychological terms. I am inviting you to explore not just the scene, but a moment of becoming, hinting at themes of protection, early life, or memory rooted in place.

The work fits comfortably into contemporary eco-aesthetic practices, which favor direct engagement with nature through materiality and metaphor. It would pair well in curatorial contexts focused on environmental poetics, new materialism, or exhibitions examining landscape beyond the horizon line—where the immersive or internal becomes the sight of painterly attention.

Here is the original photograph:

I listen to songbirds all the time. You can hear them exquisitely, whilst walking by this young oak.

For instance, talking of songbirds, the idea of a spectrogram featured in the landscape fauna for “Gold-Bronze King James VI & I Oak of 1612” – recently completed, also in acrylic. This represented my subconscious artworking, since I did not plan to paint the horizontal fauna (behind the tree) in the manner of a spectrogram.

Art made me paint the way my feelings wanted.

Hope you enjoy.

Tree, Gold and a Rectangle

Chocolate Bronze Rectangle Matt The Unfathomable Artist — “Chocolate Bronze Rectangle” [30th April/1st May 2025] by Matt The Unfathomable Artist, acrylic on A3 (42cm x 30cm) gesso & paint primed 5mm wooden board, 5000 x 3757 pixels.

As is my custom I shall include pre-published text in colour font:

After making “Alvis Dede Wimsey III” I produced two beautiful ivory-black and bronze canvases with the same 3/8in angular long-tip brush.

“Chocolate Bronze Rectangle” is the first canvas of the two. The photograph here is the best tonal matching of the painting I can provide to you. Varying light creates superb shading values, a wonderful feeling imbued.

Upon completing I sat in the garden on a wooden bench, the painting on a table under a fabric parasol, intently admiring my own work!

The painting’s understated beauty requires a cave.

I have to say myself, “Chocolate Bronze Rectangle” amazes with its tones. For me this artwork is kind of like Basquiat writing a work as ‘Untitled’.

An artist preferring viewers to simply enjoy its qualities.

——-

I have decided to share two of the three paintings which made “Gold-Bronze King James VI & I Oak of 1612”. Merely a bonus to dear Readers waiting for this latest blog article.

This is the final, third painting, after two previous underpaintings:

Gold-Bronze King James VI & I Oak of 1612

“Gold-Bronze King James VI & I Oak of 1612” presents slightly lighter for sharing online.

My vibrant Impressionist painting depicts a large tree with a rich, textured trunk and branches laden with colourful leaves amidst a resplendent abstracted fauna, fore and far-ground.

The 1612 Oak branches appear like two arms of a figure reaching out towards the sky. The trunk is strong and detailed. Leaves and branches are textured with visible brushstrokes creating a sense of depth and volume.

Noticeable layering technique is utilised to create an immersive effect. The palette features various shades of green, umber, black, gold, bronze, copper, white, ultramarine and cerulean to bring a unique dreamy warmth to the treescape.

The sky is a light, hazy blue, adding openness to the expanse. There is a feeling of calm and peacefulness reflecting the quiet beauty of nature, my personality.

“Gold-Bronze King James VI & I Oak of 1612” is kind of three paintings if we include the two underpaintings prior to completion. The first, a prior study-effort of the tree in the same composition. Then a different painting entirely, a beautiful Gold Textured Abstract.

I decided to retry the tree composition from my photograph of 21st May 2025 at 1737hrs. The original photograph faces south towards the mighty Quercus Robur I named the “King James VI & I Oak of 1612”.

Both tree compositions received five distinct drafts each, with the latter including multiple finite changes throughout evaluation.

I took seventeen field photographs around the Nature Reserve and my local Lake on 21st May. The last four photographs at 1737hrs of the 1612 Oak.

The first seven photographs around the adjacent field were taken at.. 1612hrs.. I didn’t know this until writing this very description you read here!

“I love art I do”.

I found myself inspired by Japanese blossom and fields in making this.

The Underpainting

Here is the second underpainting for “Gold-Bronze King James VI & I Oak of 1612”:

Gold-Bronze King James IV & I Oak of 1612 Matt The Unfathomable Artist — “Second Underpainting for Gold-Bronze King James VI & I Oak of 1612” – 8th & 9th June 2025.

If you review the two paintings you can see the top-right tree branch forms from the gold preworking.

If I had not already recently produced “NIIP Fine Gold” I might have considered retaining this gold painting as is. Quite honestly I was annoyed the first (now) underpainted tree (unpublished) didn’t show quite as nicely as I hoped.

I’m a perfectionist with my paintings.

I wanted to paint that tree in that composition on that canvas.

Here is the wonderful composition I photographed:

Perhaps art students or anyone interested for that matter would like to sketch, paint or even sculpture my photographic compositions?

I do hope so.

Four photographs taken of the 1612 Oak at 1737hrs are 45 seconds (pictured here, immediately above), 47, 50 (the painting composition shown in this blog article) and 54 seconds respectively.

Let me share with you a further nature photograph from the day of 21st, the fourth one taken in 1612hrs, precisely:

Just as proof of my words earlier..

“The first seven photographs around the adjacent field were taken at.. 1612hrs.. I didn’t know this until writing this very description you read here!”

.. this is the fourth photograph of seven I very quickly composed at 1612hrs. Of those photographic seconds we have 18, 20, 23, (26 pictured here, immediately above), 30, 33 and 36 respectively.

Nature is awesome.

Portraits & Caricatures

Alvis Dede Wimsey III

“Alvis Dede Wimsey III” is a fun paint play with mixed paint in my ‘peghead’ artistic style whereby guitar, violin, viola-like instrument pegs usually compose part of the portrait. With this particular work I feel the ‘pegs’ aptly took the form of piano keys!

You can rotate the painting upside-down 180 degrees to see a second portrait of a different character.

“Alvis Dede Wimsey III” is a subconscious portrait of a definitive jazz musician and composer.

(quote from my published social media)

I made this fun paint play, shown above, after making “Turquoise Green Bronze Waters”.

Did I know it subconsciously represented a portrait?

Absolutely not.

I didn’t realise it would become a ‘portrait’. I was having far too much fun doodling to see anything beyond ‘Van Gogh-like crop lines’. I began perceiving an aerial landscape of agricultural fields.

The Garden with Flowers by Vincent van Gogh [1988, Arles, Bouches-du-Rhône, France] is one of my all-time favourite Impressionist works, both visually and technically in terms of composition.

Remember dash dots? Now.. you.. know.. how my art brain works a little better. I’m inspired by past & present Masters whilst adding my own Morse-code blend to the paint-penciled mix.

Van Gogh somewhat composed drawings and paintings through the use of dashes and dots. Pointillism to some extent. In similar manner, “Alvis Dede Wimsey III” hints my personal interest in abstract techniques.

I had viewed social media reels of soul, blues and jazz artists in the week. I’m still enjoying listening, researching and thinking about those notable music genre artists even as I write.

Around the time of making “Alvis Dede Wimsey III” I also made “Gold Sun Paint Play” on another empty opened cardboard paint packaging box.

Raster Man

Proof of historical music culture presenting in my work is found with “Raster Man” pictured here:

Completed in three distinct drafts very late evening (finished prior to 2325hrs 14th), then after midnight (inspired to add brushworked Ivory Black surrounds, 15th) and then finally continuing palette the morning of 15th May (finished prior to 1053hrs).

The latter draft new Cadmium Orange texture for the Rastercap. I sang delightedly.

Initially, this composition began as an abstract in landscape until I saw potential for a Pop Art portrait.

At the very last I added eyes, mouth and a nose with Ivory Black surrounds to harmonise colour.

(quote from my published social media)

With the Vatican having elected a new Pope (Pope Leo XIV, Cardinal Robert Prevost) in May 2025 I guess subconscious working occurred here. If you turn the canvas clockwise 90 degrees into landscape, this is how I began the wood panel.

“When I made Raster Man i had no idea the new Pope (Leo XIV) is of Creole (Haitian I believe from newspapers) heritage. I personally view Raster Man as any individual Caribbean man embracing their culture. I do also like any perceived association with a distinct person. Bob Marley, Pope Leo XIV et al..

.. It wasn’t until i realised a portrait potential that the white (cap) became a potentially perceivable structure around a face. Art is our subconscious shaping canvases, sculptures, pottery. Picasso and Basquiat are undoubtedly most influential in these kind of works by me.” – my quote 18th May.

“Raster Man” is visually unique, however, experiencing a physical artwork in person is different to viewing a 2D artwork online.

Ivory Mask

Next is “Ivory Mask” which I originally titled “Insect Mask” before preferring the former name:

“Ivory Mask” [digital artwork, early afternoon 15th May 2025] by Matt The Unfathomable Artist, digital artwork from pressed Ivory Black acrylic, font ‘Destroy’, 5000 x 4000 pixels.

“Ivory Mask” shown immediately above is a digital artwork derived from mixed Ivory Black paint, pressed into Notepad paper, folded at the centre.

I added the mi to create intrigue. The font I chose is called ‘Destroy‘, with individual letters suggesting erosion, damage or decay. The self-destructing words of a cassette tape perhaps?

As to the artwork, what does the mask mean?

Can we fictionalise a purpose to this strange disguise?

A superhero, alien or an ancient artifact with magical properties?

With the Ivory Black paint having already finished the outline to “Raster Man”, I folded the Notepad paper in half, tapped around with my fingers..

.. then opened the paper to produce the very press-painting you see here!

Ivory chosen for the artwork title simply appreciating the beauty to the colour. Natural sunlight showcased the intricate leaf-like structure created whilst unfolding.

Scrollhead Caricature

Finally, we have the very vibrant “Scrollhead Caricature”:

I produced “Scrollhead Caricature” during and after making “y intersects b” [14th – 17th March 2025] from a paint play with the mixed paint on paper.

(quote from my published social media)

“Scrollhead Caricature” is made quite quickly. I thought of Picasso whilst creating this highly original work. A sense of fun, play and textural contrasts.

There are a few themes to this piece, including Shakespeare.

Hope you enjoyed this article.

World Culture & Conservation

after Chikupo Cave Art

[ pre-published commentary is highlighted in blue. If you have seen my Instagram posts for these works you can skip re-reading if you prefer. ]

“after Chikupo Cave Art” is stylistic ‘cave art’ with symbology in the stripes, dashes and a dot inspired from recent acrylic paint and collage/mixed media works such as “UN noise dash dot”, “Conker Lots”, “The Fathomable Scream” and “Tiger Lion Sphinx with Human Hair”.

The works referenced all feature either/and/or stripes, dashes or dots to hint the idea of Morse code. “after Chikupo Cave Art” differs in its whimsical addition of dashes and dots contrary to the other pieces. Despite the whimsical nature to fill canvas paper space, I feel there is a point to this. I don’t know what exactly, or why I chose to include this symbology.

Vertical Cosmos

“Vertical Cosmos” is an art experiment.

I posted this work giving no information regarding its originating inspiration, theme or interconnection. Specifically for viewers to form their own ideas, first.

After making the piece I realised a sorrowful woman’s face at the centre of the ostrich egg! I was stood several feet from the artwork at the time, then appreciating why I didn’t wish to change the cerulean blue paintwork.

The ‘vertical’ title for the piece is derived from the atomic structure of ostrich eggs, namely the vertical crystal layer. Decorated ostrich eggs have been used to make art pieces in Africa for millenia.

I wanted to make an impressionistic ostrich egg after listening to a Botswana man playing the hanedelo, a one-stringed violin type instrument, recorded in Botswana, the Kalahari Desert, 1972, according to the video’s description in 2017.

Here is the video I viewed:

Video posted to YouTube by Joe Leeming publicly available online.

The San bushman’s rapture is fascinating. I felt his spirit was lifted by the music.

Cave Art Monsters

Quote:

“Cave Art Monsters” began as a geometric doodle. I decided to overpaint/cover the ink pen doodle completely, dripping mars black paint randomly. The intriguing shapes formed whilst the paint moved over the paper canvas unintentionally.

Enjoying these shapes I cloth dried the watery-wet paint and decided to brush paint cadmium-red around the lines. Presently I’m also seeing (filmed) bonded atoms in some of my recent works (appears as two dots/paint-circles joined).

I love the strange mythological creatures in this piece with the mars black volcanic substrate.

Bonded atoms, for this theme see also “Fragments #1” which features Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin riding on a train track, broom or rocket. Hey, to me “Fragments #1″ was a bunch of abstract shapes when I made it. The only discernible shape I could visualise was the popular ‘blanket ghost’ in triangular orange at the top-right. Complete chance.

For that matter, are bonded atoms somehow represented in “Conker Lots”? Possible conjecture or coincidence I guess. Could be scientific in some way though.

Making art for all ages is something I enjoy. Appealing to classical art fans and a child five years of age is the gift of artmaking.

Log Cabin with an Orange

In the morning viewing a social media reel of an American lady showing the utter ruin of her family home in LA following the Eaton fire, “Log Cabin with an Orange” began as a scratchpad work. Brushwork completely unconnected to the reel.

As textures formed a box-like structure I began to paint a roof, becoming obvious the ‘artists dimension’ was calling for some way for me to communicate feelings surrounding the fires’ events.

I referenced the artwork with an orange, deriving personal meaning to myself in 2004. Then, starving hungry all I had to eat was sour oranges from a tree.

A sense of empathy.

Please kindly note I have strongly campaigned several years for a reversal of manmade climate damages in terms of commercial activities clearly ravaging the natural ecology and meteorological environments.

This artwork would only be sold for charitable purposes.

Here is the reel:

@saraandcrew
never did i think this is how i would come back to my house
♬ original sound – mommy sara

TikTok video reel copyright of @sarahandcrew publicly available online.

I believe citizens have the right to lawfully question commercial and locale climate policies based on lives, health, business impacts, real-world economic damages in $trillions, residential estate values and wildlife.

My digital works such as ”Newton ft² – Mud“ artistically highlight the effects of manmade climate damage.

Redeemer

From social media, quotation in bracketed bold and italics:

[ “Redeemer” features iridescent bronze, alla prima copper, silver, sap green, mars black and burnt umber applied intuitively in precise motions on a wet, lightly pigmented ground.

The Redeemer element you can see is chance palette application. However, it’s clear to me my subconscious picked out imagery I had seen a day prior.]

Delicate applications of wet copper with heavier palette motions of bronze compliment the canvas. I filled the upper-central space in sap green, definitely in thought of Central Park, New York. To be honest, this delighted.

To canvas-frame the piece I partially added mars black as a surround. Very much a 1950’s art style.

Once again it’s possible climate change is the external narrative here. A sense of saving humanity from industrial pollution in whatever form.

Corruption of duty against the Earth.

On the paper this artwork reveals a gentle, considerate balance. I hope you can see this work one day, physically before your eyes.

As always lighting a work like this is finite, sensitive to its full potential.

Icy Lake Photography

“Icy Lake – Tracing Paper version” [15th December 2022]
Digital art, 2592 x 1944 pixels, by Matt The Unfathomable Artist.

“Icy Lake – Tracing Paper version” shown above is one of my favourite digital versions from the icy lake composition photographed on the same day. The original unedited composition is not shown.

You can click on any of these images to see each version in greater detail.

“Icy Lake – Starry Particles version” [15th December 2022]
Digital art, 2592 x 1944 pixels, Time 0.314, by Matt The Unfathomable Artist.

With “Icy Lake – Starry Particles version” [immediately above] I made many visual changes to the artwork to find the perfect mix between stars and darkness of the icy lake. Artists have practised unusual perspectives for millenia. The idea these icy waters replicate stars or luminous particles is pleasing to our senses visually.

“Icy Lake – Shadow version” [15th December 2022]
Digital art, 2457 x 1680 pixels, by Matt The Unfathomable Artist.

“Icy Lake – Shadow version” [shown above] is produced by embossing the image to varying degrees until one finds the most effective visual effect. This image looks the most computerised, digital or engineered.

“Icy Lake – Black & White version” [15th December 2022]
Digital art, 2592 x 1944 pixels, by Matt The Unfathomable Artist.

By removing colour “Icy Lake – Black & White version” provides us with a stunningly beautiful image. Explaining the coldness of the wintry conditions in the most honestly efficient light.

Hayfield Oak Leaves #4

“Hayfield Oak Leaves – Original” [12th August 2022] by Matt The Unfathomable Artist, drawing with H, HB, 4B and 8B, signed in black ink on 280gsm 250mm x 300mm gesso primed canvas [pad], digitally edited image 2642 x 3116 pixels.

Following on from my previous series “Cluster of Oak Leaves” [CLICK link to see}, my new work entitled “Hayfield Oak Leaves – Original”, shown immediately above, is a digital Edition from a different pencil canvas composition than my ‘Cluster of Oak Leaves’ version.

The “Hayfield Oak Leaves” series you see on this blog page is produced from a photograph dated 1948hrs 3rd August 2022.

The photograph is from the same young Oak tree, yet different leaves. Additionally these latter series of works are in ‘Portrait’ rather than ‘Landscape’ as viewed on the canvas and photograph.

“Hayfield Oak Leaves – Green” [12th August 2022] by Matt The Unfathomable Artist, original drawing with H, HB, 4B and 8B, signed in black ink on 280gsm 250mm x 300mm gesso primed canvas [pad], digitally edited image 2642 x 3116 pixels.

“Hayfield Oak Leaves – Green” [12th August 2022], shown immediately above, is a digital Edition of my original pencil canvas version, in Green.

“Hayfield Oak Leaves – Mirrored” [12th August 2022] by Matt The Unfathomable Artist, original drawing with H, HB, 4B and 8B, signed in black ink on 280gsm 250mm x 300mm gesso primed canvas [pad], digitally edited image 2642 x 3116 pixels.

“Hayfield Oak Leaves – Mirrored” [12th August 2022] is a Mirrored digital Edition of my original pencil canvas artwork. The Original is shown at the top of this article.

‘Mirrored’ makes known the importance of conservation and reversal of manmade-climate-change/environmental-destruction for humanitarian reasons.

My favourite detail is the large leaf above my signature. In all three compositions this resembles a chameleon. This is pure chance. I did intentionally choose not to add further detail to this particular leaf, just because I liked it that way.

In ‘Mirrored’ this same leaf appears as four chameleons. For me I see moose, elephants, teddy bears and flying squirrels in ‘Mirrored’. All pure chance.

My artwork also has spiritual value. ‘Mirrored’ [unknowingly by me] is similar to slave-like symbology I have seen from the early 20th century. Signs used to help black Americans in the early 1900’s.

Therefore, to me, my artwork is directing us as human beings. Through nature itself – nature as a slave to mankind’s custodianship of Earth, to kindly provide it with safe passage from environmentally harsh human activities.

Here is the original photograph:

“Hayfield Oak Leaves – Photograph – unedited” [1948hrs 3rd August 2022] by Matt The Unfathomable Artist.

I loved this composition upon composing the arrangement within my camera. I knew I needed to sketch this. “Hayfield Oak Leaves – Original” is produced within one hour. These pieces are personally exploratory, experimentation with the ‘idea of oak leaves’ in an Impressionist style.

In my works I hope to provide layers of my thought streams with you.

Please enjoy.

Lavenders

I made “Lavenders” within 50 minutes. Keeping the composition and drawing simple, yet beautiful on the canvas.

If you look very closely at the detail with a magnifying glass or zoom in on the artwork with a computer or smartphone, the pencil work looks superfine. I didn’t wish to add further detail to “Lavenders”. Primarily as the idea replicates dried flowers and plants pressings you see stored in horticultural books.

A dried pressings effect is exactly the way I wanted this artwork to look, having recently viewed same on social media.

Here is the photograph providing the inspiration:

“Lavenders – Photograph” [1st August 2022] by Matt The Unfathomable Artist.

The photograph is wonderful.

Another conceptualisation I like about “Lavenders” is this artwork could be wheat. Wheat, barley and maize, oh how I love these crops! Completely fascinated by their beauty and taste as a food. In likeness to how people delight at the scent of lavender.

If someone asked me to describe “Lavenders” in one word, I would say… delicious.

Hayfield Meadow in Summer

I made “Hayfield Meadow in Summer” [29th July 2022] in approximately 50 minutes from start to finish.

Here is the photograph providing inspiration for my sketch:

“Hayfield Meadow in Summer – Photograph” [1218hrs, 6th July 2022] by Matt The Unfathomable Artist.

You can see the long grasses in the photograph (shown above) covering the lower-half of the composition. This is true of my sketch. Furthermore, I used ‘spatial-definition’ as a specific style, an artistic representation within “Hayfield Meadow in Summer” and in some of my other pencil works too.

Spatial-definition is wherever <blank canvas space> or <background monochrome> is used to purposely differentiate and/or amplify imagery within a composition. For instance, this might be the sky shown as a blank void; or blank canvas space between grasses.

Would you like to know my favourite details within “Hayfield Meadow in Summer”?

In no particular order:

I love the breezy looking grasses,
the way the tall foremost mid-left grasses lean towards each other, almost in harmonious reverence either side of the ‘Y’ shadow shape, and,
the dot-and-dash like leaves and bushes arrangements in the farground.

You know, I kind of feel this artwork is nothing yet everything. Not many individual objects, except for the tall grasses, have any real structure for being something specific. Yet, we look at the artwork and create a sense of what the landscape should look like.

Almost like a landscape we want it to be.

You can see ‘spatial-definition’ to a greater or lesser extent in the following works by me: “The Observant Squirrel”, “Second Mount Foremost Pathway“, “Rusted Cart of the Nature Reserve”, “Curved Tree at Wren’s Nest Pond – original”, “King James VI & I Oak of 1612 – Autumn Landscape”, “Evening at Hay Meadow – Original”, “Cluster of Oak Leaves in Hayfield Meadow – third version”, “Entrance to Wildflower Meadow”, “King James VI & I Oak of Meadows Midst” and “Hayfield Meadow in Summer” (shown in image).

Hope you enjoy.

The Unfathomable Artist

Art Blogging Infinitum

Tag Archives: photography

Oak Eyes [3×2 Collage]

The Resonant Land

Process & The Architecture of Sight

Visual Reading of “Oak Eyes”

The Unfathomable Connection

Wrens Youngling Oak

Wrens Youngling Oak

Artistic Notes:

Tree, Gold and a Rectangle

Gold-Bronze King James VI & I Oak of 1612

The Underpainting

Portraits & Caricatures

Alvis Dede Wimsey III

Raster Man

Ivory Mask

Scrollhead Caricature

World Culture & Conservation

after Chikupo Cave Art

Vertical Cosmos

Cave Art Monsters

Log Cabin with an Orange

Redeemer

Icy Lake Photography

Hayfield Oak Leaves #4

Lavenders

Hayfield Meadow in Summer