SMOLDERING FRONTIER

SMOLDERING FRONTIER 

I'd like to welcome Adam from SMOLDERING FRONTIER, a wildland firefighter, here to share the story behind his new design, Frankin Steel! 

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Meet Frankin Steel, our newest creation from Smoldering Frontier. The story behind it and the steps to bring him alive have been an interesting journey. We came up with the idea of Frankin Steel a couple years ago on the fire line.

On my saw team our chain saw fell 20 feet or so off a cliff in the Klamath National Forest. The fall destroyed most of the outer plastic. This however did not deter us from the continuing are mission for the day. With some crew collaboration and some intuitive MacGyver skills Frankin Steel was brought to life.

If you have ever had the pleasure of putting in a hard day of line cutting you can relate to the fact that you kind of feel like Frankenstein. After the day you share a lot of the same qualities that include being smelly, dirty, exhausted, and angry. If anything we need to embrace some of the lower days of being on the line.  Which is why we have created and brought Frankin Steel back to life.

We are happy to announce that we will be sending 25% of our earning to the Wildland Firefighter Foundation. At the end of each month we will post how much we have been able to raise. Thank you for your time and, Enjoy!

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Make sure to check out SMOLDERING FRONTIER on INSTAGRAM and FACEBOOK! Their Instagram feed is full of awesome wildfire photos from firefighters on the line. 

7 Things I Learned From A Prescribed Burn

As a wildfire painter, I've been wanting to get real close to a fire in nature. I finally didn't have to chase one down but was invited to witness a prescribed burn here in northwest Florida.

I had the wonderful opportunity to go out with the Florida Forest Service and learn more about what they do and how they do it. I learned a lot of things from witnessing this burn and I'm just sharing 7 thing I learned from a prescribed burn.

1. Fire in Florida is used as a tool, to help manage the land and benefits plants and animals.

2. The same piece of land needs to be burned at least every 5-7 years.

3. Every plant has a different smell when it is burned. Some smell very sweet. 

4. Small green plants and mosses survive these prescribed burns. 

5. Plants and animals benefit from the burn almost immediately. 

6. Even gentle burns, like the one I went to, that don't kick up a lot of smoke are beautiful to witness and learn from. 

7. Humans relationship to the land is important. Without humans managing the land--especially where we live--nature will take care of things and sometimes that means communities and structures can be destroyed by the forces of nature. 

If you have any questions or comments feel free to leave them here or on my video in youtube.

ANNASTASHA

Painting A Live Wildfire--First Time!

Today I am really excited to share with you the results of my first time plein air painting a wildfire! Yes, that means a real life wildfire was burning and I was outside trying to paint it. For years, I've been having dreamy visions in my head of what this would be like: Me, out in a beautiful nature setting, alone, and painting away. Haha! It was not like that. I hadn't taken into consideration many other factors, including having a baby to care for in that moment.

As you may know, I'm currently on my Art and Adventure trip. And it took about one week of me being here in California before I was able to go to see my first California fire in over 10 years! I took my baby with me and my art supplies and headed out to the Pilot Fire in the San Bernardino mountains. I got there within the first 24 hours that it started and was glad I did. That's when the color and shape of the smoke cloud is usually the most dramatic.

My baby and I hung out in our van, had lunch and then I sketched a little before trying to paint. I did a painting inside the van just to see what I could get with a more controlled environment and taking a little more time on it. Here's the result:

This is the finished piece after working on it at home. 

Then I drove down the road a little ways to a beautiful lookout point. It was a great spot to see the fire next to Silverwood lake. It was there that I tried to paint outside. Wow was that hard! The winds alone made it extremely difficult to paint, probably 20mph+ winds. And then I had a baby strapped to my back to keep him happy but more so he wouldn't get into trouble or hurt. Oh and he's 25lbs. It was a comical scene I'm sure to everyone else at the lookout point, including a news reporter. But in my head I felt like I was rocking it. I was just glad to be there to see the fire and document it myself! Ah!!! 

My paintings totally sucked, I only got the first layer on. Meaning I spent like 10 minutes tops on each one outside. Mostly due to the wind, but also the baby. But hey! I took them back home and finished them up. The first image is what I did at the fire and then after that is what I did at home. The pieces I did of the Pilot Fire are 5x7 inches. 

My in progress plein air study. I know it doesn't look like much. I needed to add a few layers to finish this one up.

Oh gosh, I absolutely L-O-V-E doing this! Making these paintings out here and watching the fires. I love meeting the firemen and women. I love meeting other by-standers and striking up conversations with them. I love being able to share the other side of a wildfire's story and meaning. So many people I meet say how my work would be cool if fires weren't so destructive. But they don't really let it sink in just WHY I paint these--they are symbols of life and change! 

I just want to thank you for listening to me and following the journey I'm on. I feel so lucky to be out here in the west doing this trip and am so lucky to have friends, fans, and of course my spouse and entire family supporting me in this endeavor. Okay, don't want to get all teary-eyed so I'll leave it at that. THANK YOU!!!! 

Contact me now to purchase any of these pieces.

ANNASTASHA