Amidst a gently gawking crowd, air itself lifts higher, freeing our visions with its own entrapment, magically revealing the power of energy and relationsip to lift us skyward, where imagination truly becomes a living dream. This is my feeling of watching the Ballons in the sunrise light, reflecting intensely off them...
Dream Like Sky (Sunrise Version)
Dream Like Sky (Sunrise Version), Southwest Abstract Painting
Organic & Wacom Digital
"It's almost impossible to capture it in one artwork."
The Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque, New Mexico, is perhaps one of the most serenely joyful human-made experiences I've ever had, as the expanse of almost infinite sky, combined with the loftiness and candy-colored assortment of these fantastic crafts made often by the pilots themselves, is like a meditation itself.
Capturing the nearly infinite expanse of all the hot air balloons that all come from around the world to Albuquerque New Mexico for just a short period of time in October, is almost impossible. For starters, the terrain of the Southwest is so vast, that really, the experience of the fiesta is almost all in your mind, as you notice a hot air balloon silhouetting a bank building, or you're doing clothes down the street and you notice a bright airship cresting over the tree line...
There's no one way to capture all of the feelings and captivating moments in one artwork. So I wanted to just capture that feeling of buoyant exuberance you feel when you're on the field, watching this massive craft invented hundreds of years ago - About to lift, and take flight, on any morning the first week of October!
The Art Supplies I used to make Dream Like Sky (Sunrise)
This painting, along with its twin sister "Dream Like Sky (Sunset)," started out as pencil sketches and then experiments with watercolor and my Caran d' Ache pastels. It ultimately started getting my digital-sketch attention while working on some color studies, and I finished it with my Wacom tablet as a final work of organically-based digital art.
