This is the main painting wall in my studio, with a number of new, very small paintings on it, a few larger, older works, and the big new painting which I just finished yesterday that I've titled Bhaskara's Birchbark.
Bhaskara was an eminent 12th century Hindu mathematician in India. The geometric design within the square in the center of the canvas is my favorite visual proof of the Pythagorean Theorem--an incredibly elegant, simple diagram that deftly proves one of geometry's most fundamental tenets. It's a proof that Paul Erdos, the most important mathematician of the late 20th century, would undoubtedly have said was in "The Book"--the compendium he imagined God keeps of all the most beautiful mathematical proofs. Legend has it that Bhaskara drew the diagram and rather than explain it, simply wrote beneath it, "BEHOLD!"
I was a math nerd long before I was an art nerd, and I've always loved geometric proofs. I have no idea whether I'll do more paintings of this sort, but it was great fun to work on this big one.
Bhaskara's Birchbark ©Kesler Woodward 2018 acrylic on canvas 60" x 48"
Four April Paintings - Top to bottom - Spring Trail, Snow Wells, Spring Shadows, April Trail ©Kesler Woodward 2018 10" x 8" each
A contrast in every way to the big, bold Bhaskara's Birchbark are these four small, brand-new paintings of scenes that caught my eye and interest on the trail behind our house this April. Dorli and I run on this path at least three times each week when we're in town, all year-round. The April shadows sharply and clearly define the snow path that by April we've been packing with our running feet for the six or more months of winter, and on all sides, the birches and aspens have melted "wells" around them, from the heat captured by the trunks from the still-low, but ever-brightening sun of spring.
