Finding new images for a shamanic painting

 I am looking for my next painting image, which means I am looking for my next painting idea.  Because I paint in a photo-realist style, my images come first to my attention in my camera.  And I take pictures because I am looking for a visual manifestation of an idea.  More accurately, I am seeking a picture of something I don’t quite grasp, whose sight will cause revelation.  

During a recent sailing cruise through Desolation Sound and into Toba Inlet, I was seeking revelation in the consciousness of clouds.  I did not find my next painting image, but my understanding why not creates insight that brings me closer to the thrill of recognizing my next shamanic painting.

The mystery of air as consciousness was flowing over this mountain ridge in the still morning near Walsh Cove Marine Park, and I do not blame either the camera or myself for our inability to record the majesty of mist rising up to feed the sun.

The vast elemental forms of Pryce Channel cannot be brought into the studio as paint on matte board without a reduction of aliveness that the human scale seems to require.

Perhaps in the close regard of nature at its most intimate I will find new images for a shamanic painting of consciousness in all matter. It may be in detail that the camera, and my paintbrush, will be able to apprehend that the vastness of everything that is, is awake.