Exploring Inspiration – Rhythmic Colors

March 2, 2012      Author : Eric Hopkins and Peter Ralston    Category: Art      0 Comment(s)

For artists Eric Hopkins and Peter Ralston, island exploration by air and sea inspires the soul, bringing beauty and meaning to the experience of their work.  We are thrilled, honored, and humbled to share excerpts of Eric’s writings from 2010 and Peter’s responses - fascinating musings providing joyful insights into how these artist-explorers see, feel, and “re-present” the world of Maine islands.  Enjoy “Rhythmic Colors” the second in the Exploring Inspiration series of seven.

Eric
I’m not a traditional landscape painter. I love the shapes and rhythms all around me and the roar of the waves and the motion of the boat even if it does make it hard to draw, paint, or write.
I don’t want to recreate or reproduce what I see. I want to re-present my experience here. I want to build the vocabulary of what makes me tick and what it feels like to see ALL that blue sky and distance—ALL that water as far as I can see except for some little rocky islands and the mainland to the West. There’s something about the color green—all those green spruce trees—all that greek olive green seaweed and especially the indescribable green water that rolls over the rocks where deep moving swell water meets the islands. I want to take these colors home with me.




Peter
Again, amen, Eric. Being out on the boat is about as good as it gets for me. RAVEN is a 37’ island, basically…in addition to being my 300 horsepower tripod. A few of my own favorite images are those in which the elemental spirit is all about silence and scale. Humbling and beautiful moments, all alone in the hugeness of it all. It scarcely gets any better than that, and Eric’s work celebrates that as well as anyone ever has. There’s really a spiritual nature to his work. He exults in that and it shows. His passion and core love for these things is unmistakable. I know because, with all humility, I am blessed to have that within me too.


Next, “Damned Exciting” in series three of Exploring Inspiration, Eric reflects on how exploring, and flying in particular, drives him wild with images of expansive, connected, sometimes even overwhelming terrains.   Peter, quite often closer to the earth’s surface on a working boat, discusses the surprising similarities between fishing and photography.

www.erichopkins.com

www.ralstongallery.com

More Eric and Peter at Maine Island Living Gallery Pages

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