100319: All Local (Almost)

Posted on October 3, 2019 by artandfossils

Late afternoon light landed on a shelf full of rocks and fossils here in my studio the other day. Today’s opening image is the result – a brachiopod, a mollusk, and a trilobite. That trilobite is the only fossil in my possession that I did not find myself, or rather, one that I did not dig up myself. It is from Morocco via the Sant’ Ambrogio Market in Florence (where I purchased it for a few euro.)

So, with camera now in hand, I grabbed a few more local fossils and, with an appreciation for their unique shapes, tried to breathe some new life into these ancient relics.

Sometimes even broken pieces can be intriguing on their own.

And it continued from there. Following up on last week’s post, all the remaining images are brachiopods (whole or parts) showing again a few of the many different types (15,000) that existed over a period of a few hundred million years!

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Brachiopods seem to be the most abundant local fossil here in this patch of the upper Hudson River Valley. No wonder then that they continue to find their way into my recent drawings and paintings!

Thanks for the visit.

092018: A Devonian Sampler

Posted on September 20, 2018 by artandfossils

For today’s post I have gathered together a selection of images of fossils found in the vicinity of my studio in Catskill, NY. Those viewers familiar with the subject will, I hope, enjoy these images, some new, some reworked.

For those new to this blog, perhaps a brief explanation of the subject matter is in order. The Devonian is a period in geological time that ran from app. 420 to 359 million years ago. In my “neighborhood” one can find fossils from the Middle Devonian (app. 387 mya). And this mix here is all marine invertebrates, mostly coral and brachiopods. One more note – at the time these animals existed this land resided well south of the equator. Thank the enormity of the time frame and land movement due to plate tectonics for that.

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Thanks for the visit.

091318: Nature!

Posted on September 13, 2018 by artandfossils

A few years ago, our neighbors, Dorian and Jim, gave to me two rather large hornet nests. They had been hanging in their barn for years and thought they might be good subjects for me – a very kind gesture that I much appreciated.

Over time I photographed them enough (on the outside) and finally decided to take a look inside. These first five images were taken as I slowly broke the nests down to the honeycomb.

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Fascinating structures they are! The hexagonal pattern that defines the honeycomb is a pattern found throughout nature (See “Why Nature Prefers Hexagons.”). And it has been around for a long time.

The image above is not an old or even fossilized honeycomb. It is, rather, a favosite, more commonly known as honeycomb coral. This fossil coral is approximately 387 million years old (during the Devonian Period) and was something I dug up locally.

Brachiopod and Mollusc

“Geometry in nature” seems to be a good segue into more of nature’s designs – an image sampler of fossils, all locally founded and all as old as the honeycomb coral.

Brachiopod

Cephalopods and Brachiopods

Gastropod

Brachiopods

Tabulate Coral

I’m closing today with three mixed media drawings. I had trilobites on my mind so I created some generic versions – each one app. 36″ x 48″.

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Thanks for the visit.

072618: Three Groupings

Posted on July 26, 2018 by artandfossils

I’ve been going in a few different directions lately as today’s post reflects. Group One consists of images of pods from the baptisia plant. I know nothing about gardening. But I do know when it’s time to cut something down and bring it into the studio! Group Two is made up of new fossil images. And Group Three is a selection of new mixed media pieces I am working on.

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Thanks for the visit.

053118: A Rediscovered Folder

Posted on May 31, 2018 by artandfossils

A year ago, as we prepared a party for the opening of my new studio, I threw a few hundred image into a slide show that looped on my computer screen throughout the afternoon.

Yesterday I ran across that folder – hadn’t seen it since then. I took some time to look through it and took a liking to this seemingly unlikely mix. I guess it’s an indication of the things I found interesting at the time – all things natural, I suppose.

Some things local and some things from far away, including “natural” objects from the Natural History Museum in Florence, Italy.

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Thanks for the visit.

042618: Finally Spring

Posted on April 26, 2018 by artandfossils

I think it’s finally safe to say that we’ve seen the last of the snow for the season here in the Northeast. And that has allowed me to get out and dig around and familiarize myself with the many fossils surrounding my studio.

So today I have some fresh new fossil images intertwined with a handful of images from my recent infatuation with some interesting paperweights.

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Thanks for the visit.

032218: Fossils From the Neighborhood

Posted on March 22, 2018 by artandfossils

Today’s first and last images are colorful bookends to the latest group of fossil images. This strange, lyrical image (above) is the result of playing with a glass paperweight. Contained within are various stringy objects that act as design elements. The fun in creating an image like this is in the use of various color reflectors and lights of varying color temperatures. A simple desk object now suggests other worlds – something that I plan to explore further.