Remember the old song, Dem Bones… the hip bone’s connected to the thigh bone, etc. Last November, artist Zach Claxton, broke his ankle, or let’s say his deck broke it for him. A board snapped and so did his tibia, a heck-of-a-deck experience.
Turns out Zach’s ankle bone was connected to his painting bone, so to speak, and it interrupted a would-be prolific year of painting.
The results: It’s hard to stand at an easel and paint whilst balancing on one leg. At the same time, Zach was tending to numerous organization commitments while fulfilling commissions. He was doing all that while wearing a boot for some time. It was rugged. He couldn’t do what he longed to do.
Still, in spite of the demon deck-from-heck, Zach, productive Plateau painter and a never-give-up kind of guy, stepped out, boot and all, into a new adventure. He’d spent years painting in a realistic style, creating animals, landscapes, and commissions. He executed them beautifully. But dem bones shifted him into a new stride, a fresh direction: Impressionism. Sometimes Life’s physical changes, change thinking entirely.
Impressionist work inspires Zach. He says, “I’ve only experimented with a couple of Impressionistic pieces, but I am moving more in that direction. Still, every time I say this painting will be more loose, my hand cramps up (muscles this time), and a little voice says, ‘Stay in your lane!’”
But, if you know Zach, and he wants to learn something, be certain he’ll figure it out. In the meantime, he will continue working with brushes, doing a few commissions and volunteer work (though he’s decelerating in those lanes), and experimenting with a palette knife, Fall’s Grand Finale (palette knife) and Through the Cottonwoods. He was pretty much on fire with the latter. Both paintings are sold.
“I am not a student of art,” Zach says. “I just do what I do. I paint what I see. I look forward to doing just that. I want to be a more painterly painter.”
Dem bones of Zach are now healed. He shares this quote: “Change is inevitable. Growth is optional.”
Visit Zach’s work, and look for future palette knife surprises, soon to be on his website: zachclaxton.com.
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