Paintings and Drawings by Savanna
Tropical Rainforest and Caribbean Marine Life
God is really only another artist. He invented the giraffe, the elephant and the cat. He has no real style. He just keeps on trying other things. - Pablo Picasso
I am a nature junky. I absorb it, through every sense. Traveling, diving, sailing, and hiking through rainforest and exploring ancient cultures - their arts and ruins. It fills my mind and soul.
I work daily from nature, a leaf, a landscape, a little green iguana, an orchid. There is beauty in the smallest things. It is the process, the focus of attention to detail, that enriches my soul, not the finished pen drawing or watercolor in my sketchbook. Recreating what is before me, in a simple sketch, anchors it in my mind forever.
Art is study - Art is a practice.
With every drawing, I learn, with every painting I evolve. If I flip back through an old sketchbook and look at a drawing, I remember everything that happened that day. The humidity, the scent in the breeze, the birds and monkeys chattering in the trees, the people I was with and often the conversations I had been listening to - with only one ear. The act of drawing opens my mind and senses in a way nothing else can. Years later, I can redraw what I’ve sketched from that day. These mark my mind, like the tracks left in the sand by ocean current. I realized long ago, to not worry over these simple sketches. It is the act of sketching, the building and the storing of images in my mind that result in my finished works.
My paintings come from my dreams, from my store of images and memories. In my dreams, images bubble to the surface, clean and freshly laundered. I awake and write, I describe what I have seen, before the curtain drops and the dream is lost to the light of day. I often feel I am left with a complete story or painting, I could not have written or envisioned in my wildest ramblings. Yet, it is there, reality in a dream... Or I've awaken with the smallest pieces of the dream, condensed into one image, one frame, like a scrap of film on a cutting room floor. I have only to pick it up and use the magic it contains, to tell the story. This dream essence is what I paint. I know where it comes from, the events and images of my life. However, I cannot explain the magic that transforms it. I go to sleep with the daily events drifting through my mind, like a child's mud-pie batter. When I awake, the batter has metamorphosed into a beautiful edible baked pie.
I work in ink and watercolor for sketching, and when I am traveling. When I am at my studio, I work in oil, on linen or canvas. I enjoy working large - mural size painting. Working all day with my peripheral vision inside the frame, the painting takes on an Alice in Wonderland feeling. Often the size of a painting is determined by the ceiling height in my studio or the width of canvas or linen I can buy, wherever I may be.
Creating artwork has always been a part of me, it the way I see, it is the way I express myself. It is my challenge, my path, my calling. To not paint is to not breathe.
A quote I believe...
All true Art must help the soul realize the inner self...
True Art must be evidence of happiness, contentment and spiritualit
y of its authors". - - Gandhi
A friend pointed out that I have left out bio bits about education, shows, and impressive names that have thrilled me when they bought a painting. And I considered writing a proper bio. However, I find the seeds of inspiration more fascinating than the cold business of marketing art.
I feel the paintings have been nurtured - from vision to existence for a purpose - and set free to stand on their own. I like to believe that they find someone who understands and connects with them and enjoys their company. Who I am, standing in their shadow, is unimportant; I am only the hand that delivered them into the world.