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| Two lagoas, pastel on panel, 9"h x 12"w. |
While revisiting the photos from a my Artist in Residence stay on the island of Flores in the Azores back in 2007, I came across one taken at the highest point of the volcanic spine of the island. The view from the miradouro overlooks two of the crater lakes found on the Morro Alto zone: Lagoa or Caldeira Negra on the left, and Lagoa Comprida on the right. In the distance one can see the hollows of two more craters: Lagoa Seca on the right, which is a dry caldera, and Lagoa Branca towards the left.
My stay on the island of Flores was memorable for many reasons, but mostly because of the magical quality of the landscape. The westernmost island of the Azores group, Flores lies on the American tectonic plate, as opposed to the rest of the archipelago on the European plate, and is quite isolated. I joked with the locals that with tectonic drift, in another million years or so, they might be our closest neighbors.
Flores has a total of seven calderas, all filled with water except for one. Each of them is unique, with vertiginous slopes and unusual vegetation. Only a bit of the endemic vegetation remains in the highest part of the island, known as the Morro Alto: sedges, ferns, mosses, and wind-sculpted native junipers. Most of the plants growing throughout Flores are imports from distant parts of the globe, brought by the ships that stopped here on their voyages around the world. With the very wet temperate climate of the north Atlantic, most of those plants have taken hold and propagated well beyond expectations.
But in this highest part of the island where these two crater lakes are located, the landscape is still wild, as were the winds on the day I stopped here. Much as I wanted to stay to paint on location, the penetrating winds and cold made it very uncomfortable, so I settled for taking the photos.
The weather on Flores is very changeable, and even as I walked by the crates lakes, the clouds covered and uncovered the sun, creating unusual and lovely light effects. I wished I could return once more... doing this painting allowed me to project myself back to Flores again through the magic of imagination.
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The pastel is on a Richeson premium pastel Gator board panel, a surface that is rapidly becoming my favorite, since it holds so much pastel powder. I toned the original cool gray color with a reddish-brown underpainting laid down with pastels and Turpenoid. After that dried, I started the painting, gradually building up the layers of color.
