Everyone's an Artist

Apparently I am surrounded by artists!  Okay, that's a bit of an exaggeration...I would hardly consider two being "surrounded."  But still...I have found myself in a state of perpetual awe over the talents that are emerging around me from the most unexpected sources.  The most recent example of this would be from our friend Matt.  When we were at the hotsprings, Clint and I told Matt and Alana how much we were enjoying oil painting.  At one point in the conversation, Matt mentioned that he had always wanted to try painting on cardboard; a sort of unique, urban-esque style he had seen in the past.  After our conversation, Matt felt inspired to give it a try.  Here is his first painting:

I love it.  The vertical streaks and the enclosing black give it this ripped, despondent quality.  You just know it's all over for that poor, hopeless tree.   

And then there's Clint, whose painting skills have now far-surpassed my own.  Here is his latest:

This one is on a 16 x 20 canvas, so it is obviously much larger in real life.  It is really interesting to look at in person.  I love how this vengeful tiger ferociously emerges from the clouds, transitioning from wispy and abstract to more realistic.

But this next one is my absolute favorite:

Again, he used a 16 x 20 canvas, but what's special about this one is that he didn't just model after some picture from google images.  Well, he did to a degree; most of the background came from google.  But he found ways to make it his own.  There was originally a wolf in front of the moon, but he decided to remove the creature and replace it with the silhouette of a female-figure instead.  In person the white cherry blossoms pop out against the blue, and the whole thing has a sort of eerie (yet strangely serene) mood to it.  Clint decided to create a blog to post his art work, but right now it's still pretty empty and only features his first two paintings.  He is planning to add these ones on tonight. 

So all of these paintings, and none of them are mine.  *spoiled sad face*  I have had to take a break from painting to work on Teri's scrapbook, which I promised her would be finished by this Friday.

I was planning to write a little bit more about our hike on Saturday, but I think I'm going to postpone one more time...or maybe two...(hopefully it doesn't fall into the same hopeless vortex as my yet-to-be-written Rose Parade post).