Peaceful From Above

Peaceful From Above, mixed media on 20in round canvas, B. Burkard 2025

I've been working away at this one for a while, ten and a half months to be exact. A new canvas shape, a new subject, a new perspective, it was slow going and for quite a while I wasn't sure I'd be able to finish it in a way I deemed finished well. I set it aside for a number of months, looking at it frequently on my studio wall of works in progress and couldn't find the confidence to pick it up again.

But as the world has done what the world has done for the last few months I got frustrated and heartbroken and one day I took it down off the wall. I fell into work on it with a mediative focus, no longer worries about mistakes or set backs, it was just important to do what I could with what I had. And then I place the last few brushstrokes and sat back and looked at it for a long while. When is begun to piece my intention was for it to have a melancholy mood, but now I think it slowly morphed into a quiet reverence of this wildly wonderful Earth.

I think right now more than ever it is important to find a way to give more individuals the perspective they need to recognize what an incredible blessing it is to call this planet home and to be in awe of even the every day wonders right outside our doors. Right now more than ever we need to find a way to protect her more than ever with a ferocity. We need to love it with everything we've got. We only have one.