Illustrating Creative Nonfiction

Glasgow 1897

Watercolour and oil pastel

2018 Charlene Brown

A computer-stylized version of this painting, which was based on old photos of the Tolbooth Steeple in Glasgow Cross, will form the underpainting of a computer collage illustrating the ‘young adult’ or YA novella I have started.  

The novella is a multi-generational journal being written in the ever-evolving genre of creative nonfiction. Chapter 1 (a draft of which is the only part I’ve actually written) begins in Glasgow, just before the electrification of the tram system.

Persepolis

Gate of Xerxes

Watercolour and oil pastel

©2018 Charlene Brown

Unlike last week, I know exactly how much of this ruin is still there, as I took the photos this painting is based on last April.  Most of the damage to Persepolis was done by Alexander the Great when he invaded Persia in 330 BCE.

The background and the gate from this angle were in separate photos.  The mountains were actually off to the right quite a bit, but of course I wanted to include them in the painting.  And I also wanted to paint the gate from this angle because of the two Assyrian-style Lamassu supporting the pillars, compared to the relatively ordinary bulls at the other end.

How much of this is still there?

Palmyra

Watercolour and crayon

©2018 Charlene Brown

There was a great deal of speculation in 2015, when ISIS was known to be trying to destroy the ‘Venice of the sands,’ that they might succeed in leveling Palmyra and other ancient sites completely. It’s hard to say just how much of the portion of the ruins  shown here might still exist, even when ‘before and after’ pictures of the ancient caravan city  are available.

Abstracting landscapes I’ve painted before

Beaver Pond at Third Lake

Watercolour and oil pastel

©2018 Charlene Brown

To achieve an abstracted landscape, I’m using a technique employed by oil and acrylic painters – instead of doing a pencil drawing, I’ve ‘roughed in’ the basic shapes using oil pastels, then gradually refined the overall composition with boldly-applied layers of paint. 

As usual, this painting ended up quite a bit less bold or even ‘rough’ than I’d hoped it would be, and more detail than I wanted found its way past the ‘resist’ of the oil pastel. 

Despite this, I will continue to try to abstract familiar scenes, mainly from the Rockies, possibly  allowing my inner ‘Hundertwasser’ a bit more leeway.   

Review of 2017 + Plan for 2018

Many Springs Trail in Bow Valley Provincial Park

Watercolour

©2017 Charlene Brown

Here are some highlights of a review of 1150 Words in 2017 and my plans this blog in 2018:

·       Travel journaling:  I completed a project begun in 2016 to expand on the sketches and paintings my grandchildren and I produced during the trips I took with them between 2004 and 2013.  There were 30 blog posts in total which I compiled, with additional photographs, into a 29-page booklet.

·        Clean energy haiku/haiga project:  I have produced 50 poems using ‘found’ haiku and computer-stylized versions of landscape paintings from all the Provinces and Territories of Canada. So far I have compiled 14 of these illustrated poems, with a plan to include up to 50, in a book, ‘Inventing the Future with Clean Energy Haiku.’

·       I attended a workshop in Writing for Children at Camosun College here in Victoria, during which I completed a first draft of the first chapter of a YA novella. I hope to complete a first draft of the whole book in 2018. The illustrations will be computer-generated.

·       My blog metadata indicates that in 2017 I added 20 archaeology-related blog posts to the 77 posts I’d written previously.  Three of these were from Virtual Paintouts, two from a trip to Ireland with my daughters, ten from a trip to Iran with the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria and five from My Travels with Our Grandkids. I plan to begin compiling the ones I like into an archaeological review.

Last seen in 1962

Johnston Canyon

Watercolour and crayon

©2017 Charlene Brown

I have only ever seen this particular view of one of the waterfalls in Johnston Canyon on two occasions, despite having climbed the canyon regularly between 1954 and 1971. The main hiking trail up the canyon is a bit back from the edge over the roof of this cave, and you used to have to climb down through the forest to reach this spot.  It must be more accessible now, because even the Google Camera has been here! 

Fourth Revolution Haiku

Larch Valley

This is a computer-abstracted version of a painting that was based loosely on some other people’s photographs taken from Sentinel Pass above Larch Valley. I’ve never been up there myself, because of a grizzly bear warning posted at the trailhead at Moraine Lake (plus it’s a really long climb.)  

The haiku is advocating a larger role for direct current on our power grids, as DC is required by many end-use devices such as digital equipment, solar PV, storage batteries, electric vehicles.  The fourth revolution is, of course, the fourth industrial revolution – intelligent automation, artificial intelligence that enables robots to learn and communicate with each other, machines that can make multiple products and customize each one, software-driven systems.

Climate change preparation

The Oilsands

Canada is gradually improving its ranking in environmental opinion polls, but we’re still subject to some derision, focusing on the Alberta Oilsands, which critics refer to as ‘tarsands that produce the world’s dirtiest oil.’
They may be right, but I think if we paid higher carbon taxes we could pay for whatever research it takes to clean up this energy source. And this would be far better than going to war over oil in the Middle East or using food to make biofuels.

In the meantime, I thought I’d present this ‘blot on the landscape’ as a ‘cleaned up’ semi-abstract design. As for making sense of the rest of the overlaid haiku, Googling ‘climate change preparation’ will get you over a million results to read...