beautiful – brian sostrom

Schweitzer Mountain

August 5, 2016 by Brian Sostrom

I am finally living in North Idaho. Not really moved in and there are a lot of giant loose ends but I’m catching the tail end of summer!

My sister and her family came out for my first official week here. We took a really fun outing up Schweitzer Mountain. We road the chair lift up to the 6,400 foot summit then hiked down 2.5 miles (2,440 feet elevation change) to the ski village. It was a breathtaking vista and a beautiful sunny day. We carried to go cup drinks up the chair lift and snacked on mountain huckleberries most of the way down the mountain.

What a great day!

Ripple then Wave

December 12, 2015 by Brian Sostrom

Waves

I finished some of the desolate water paintings I started on recently. These are two of the paintings of which I am particularly fond. You can see some interesting surface qualities if you look carefully. These are most noticeable on the first image, particularly along the left side. These odd textural anomalies are my favorite things! These paintings both have deep translucent depth, more than 1/8th inch so the light really moves through the work.

Water Crow

December 5, 2015December 5, 2015 by Brian Sostrom

This is a 6″x6″ painting I did last year. Yet another crow painting!

Cow, boy.

November 23, 2015November 23, 2015 by Brian Sostrom

I have been continuing with some atmospheric water and sky paintings but so far haven’t been too pleased with the results. Sometimes you can feel the magic, sometimes you are alone in a paint spattered room. In the interim I figured I would post some more of my poor sad cow friends.

Peccary

November 22, 2015November 22, 2015 by Brian Sostrom

Since I was a child I have always had an interest in skulls. I used to collect them and prize each skull I came across in my wanderings. At a certain point that sort of behavior becomes a bit “odd”. Luckily all of my interests were odd so it blended seamlessly into the patchwork.

A couple years ago I spent a bit of time painting still life images containing rocks and bones… This particular setup was in a box I lined with aluminum foil. As the title suggests, it is the skull of a peccary… a really interesting little pig like animal found in the desert. The skull is incredibly thick and powerful for such a tiny creature… and the teeth!

Symbols & Signs

November 19, 2015 by Brian Sostrom

This painting goes back a few years.

I was working with really thick translucent acrylic paint. I would pour it on and aggressively dry it in front of a heater and the surface would craze in unpredictable ways. A person can never entirely dictate the way materials will interact when used in unconventional ways. That unpredictable outcome can result in something that feels akin to magic but more often results in wasted materials. I was caught in a loop basically lured along by glimpses of success but wasting too much time. Quite literally hanging around watching the paint dry! The method of painting, used in this particular piece along with scores of others, I have moved away from. It started to feel more and more like that definition of insanity…

This blackbird painting was one I considered a success, he seemed to know the score.

Moon and Field

November 17, 2015November 17, 2015 by Brian Sostrom

Moon Field

Another moon related painting. This one had some interesting texture variations in the sky.

even the moonlight is blinding

November 16, 2015November 16, 2015 by Brian Sostrom

The moon always a powerful presence in the sky, night or day. It seemed like a good excuse to post the last few lines from a great song by an amazing songwriter…

Townes Van Zandt – Rake

…
And now the dark air is like fire on my skin
And even the moonlight is blinding