Stillwoods Fine Arts

Abstracts (Natural)

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At Death's Door snow white ice floes meander in the wintry bay waters.

Death Floes

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One December afternoon combined crisp, still air with a hint of warmth in the setting sun. At Ellison Bay the ice had melted in a few small pools near the shore. The smooth, multicolored stones on the bay floor, called cherts, shimmered like bits of mosaic. The water surface rippled gently from an evening breeze. The whole scene was burnished with the golden highlights of a fading sun. The freezing and thawing had purified the water to its crystal clear state. All these natural elements conspired to create a moment of patterned beauty.

Ellison Bay Mosaic

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The first autumn snow drops golden gingko leaves in rich piles. Like tiny fans or umbrellas or butterflies, they ignite our imagination as we live on the thin edge between fall and winter.

Gingko Gold

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Winter's icy archipelago stretches toward the horizon.

Ice Islands

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$The underside of this leaf is a fractal delight.$
Leaf Lattice

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Surreal chromatic tones transform gooseberries into expressionist art.

Solarberries

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Autumn prairie grasses cascade in lush bands of fawn and sienna.

Cascading Prairie

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Door County dandelions are captured here on the cusp between flower and seed. Digital overpainting exaggerates the play of forms, adding a burst of energy to the yellow-green landscape. The swirling seedpods, like gaseous planets, float in the luxuriant growth, contrasting with the spiky blades of new bluegrass.

Dancing Dandies

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Like rows of chili peppers sumac leaves magnify the glow from an autumn sun.

Dream Sumac

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Spring ferns uncurl in the warm sunshine like tiny cobra heads dancing in the breeze.

Ferns Afiddling

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Water droplets like tiny planets move in their orbits around a hosta leaf.

Hosta Cosmos

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The cold Lake Michigan waters smooth and round the edges of floating ice, creating wintry lily pads.

Ice Pads

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Grey and ochre lichens spread like splatters of paint, creating their own compositions.

Leafy Lichens

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The human eye socket is a swirl of curves, a mini universe with a dark sun at its center.

Watched

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Autumn winds pile up wild apples to the delight of native deer.

Wisconsin Windfall

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A medley of tomatoes comprise a tasty autumn still life.

Tomato Pastiche

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A spring flower dances in the sunlight with its unnatural blue.

Daffodelic

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Like ancient amphora these pitchers huddle together in beautiful clusters.

Pitchers Aplenty

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$Prickly leaves form a fractal trumpet.$
Leaf Prickles

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The sharp cactus spines soften in the sunlight.

Dream Cactus

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Light filters lovingly through the smokey blooms of purple cotinus.

Cotinus Composition

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A colony of barnacles claim squatter's rights on a pier.

Bay Barnacles

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From a distance icicles appear to be frozen water spears but up close they reveal swirling rings of ice stacked on top of each other, some shaped like glass rods, some like winter reeds, some like braided bull whips. All glisten like liquid light suspended in time.

Icy Liquid Light

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The knotty arms of a sycamore tree flaunt their muscularity.

Muscularity

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Cedar branches burn like jeweled fireworks.

Cedar Embers

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Nature sets her table with giant pie plates and a white lily bouquet.

Amazon Lily Pads

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Natural symmetry combines with ruby richness.

Rich Rosette

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Twins can't resist playing in the water of a warm July rain.

SandPits

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The remains of fronds weave a sturdy cinnamon cloth up the trunk of a mature palm.

Palm Bark

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A logger's slice of spalted maple maps out a magical land of ochre oceans, khaki continents, and ebony mountain ranges.

Spalted Splendor

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Nature at times constructs its own still life—a rounded rock placed carefully in the snow, a jaunty stick pointing inward, an igloo icy globe hovering in the background, a pleasing contrast of curvature and angularity.

Sticks and Stones

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In the gold of autumn the cattails parade their brown spikes along swampy roadside ditches.

Cattail Still Life

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A patch of lichens and a few hardy plants claim an Italian rock face as their home.

Rocky Refuge

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Orange peppers pose as green-eyed flowers.

Peppers Aplenty

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Pink Obedience plants form a striking abstract painting thanks to some creative camera tricks.

Pink Obedience

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On the shore sun and waves transform old white cedar tree roots into a sculpture set against the blue of Lake Michigan.

Driftwood Sculpture

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The boreal habitat of the North Woods creates rich patterns of mosses, cedar leaves, stones, and lichens.

Woodland Carpet

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Organic splashes of crimson and green counterbalance ceramic geometry.

Berrylicious

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Morels decorate their cone umbrellas with intricate gridwork.

Morel Matrix

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The prickly pear cactus simultaneously beckons with its colorful fruit and threatens with its piercing thorns.

Painterly Prickles

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A cactus finger thrusts upwards in spiny splendor.

Prickles Aplenty

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The hosta displays an Asian simplicity in its rhythmic lines and its subtle color patterns, made even more prominent here by the sepia tone.

Antique Hosta