TEXT CATALOG of Mahieu Paintings in Exhibit/Auction

Catalog No. 1
CORAL SUNDOWN -- Missouri River near Petersburg
30 X 40 inches, Lascaux acrylic on canvas

Since 1987, I have been absorbed with painting the Missouri River Valley, at various times of the day and during different atmospheric conditions.  Many of these pieces feature the river and its environs  bottoms in their most otherworldly states -- early in the morning, or at dusk when the river breathes opalescent mist to swath the fields, and rob them of a sense of gravity.  This late winter scene lacks the atmospheric haze of summer but captures the coral after glow of the late winter sunset.

Catalog No. 2
MOONLIT SNOW
40 X 30 inches, Lascaux acrylic on canvas

Snow scenes are one of my favorite motifs.  This piece features one of our native Western Red Cedars that I have been “bonsai-ing” for ten years.  The tree is about 30 feet tall, and I have pruned it annually to achieve a wind-swept appearance.  Early in March we had a nice snow fall.  I began this piece as the snow was falling and finished on the second evening.  That night was clear,  the snow was still on the boughs and the sky burned an intense cobalt blue just as the last rays of the suns light drained from the winter sky.

Catalog No. 3
LATE WINTER GLOAMING -- Missouri River near Petersburg
36 X 48 inches, Lascaux acrylic on canvas

This is the first of a small series of river scenes I have created for this exhibit featuring a bend in the Missouri River west of our home.  This site is where travellers on the Santa Fe Trail were ferried across from the starting point at old Franklin to Arrow Rock.  One of the most potent nature images burned into my memory is a darkened landscape with only a faint strip of molten sunset color at the horizon.  Many, many times I have observed this as a child, on horseback, I raced to get home “before dark”.  As an adult I have returned to this moment again and again to capture that enigmatic moment when day and night coalesce.  This painting shows my fascination with the mood of color, and the American Tonalist movement.
 

Catalog No. 4
LIGHTNING BUGS AND IRIS
30 X 40 inches, Lascaux acrylic, phosphorescent pigment on canvas

I have been making paintings of lightning bugs since I was a teenager.  This piece is based on a scene in our garden in mid-May when the German iris bloom.  At twilight they seem to be enveloped in aquamarine haze, and I couldn’t resist the addition of phosphorescent lightning bugs.  Their chartreuse glow is the perfect compliment to the iris’ purple.  The lightning bugs in this piece actually glow in the dark.

Catalog No. 5
TURQUOISE YELLOW SUNSET -- Missouri River near Petersburg
36 X 48 inches, Lascaux acrylic on canvas

The second in this series and of a totally different mood than LATE WINTER GLOAMING.   Painted in a more Impressionist palette, the brisk March air, turquoise and yellow sunset tones and windswept skies suggested spring to me.  The colors of the sky are emblematic of daffodils and new grass.
 

Catalog No. 6
INDIAN SWAMP -- MIDDAY
24 X 24 inches, Lascaux acrylic on canvas

There are a number of springs in the loess hills that border the river bottoms.  This is one we call “Indian Swamp” as there is an ancient trail and
thong tree that points toward these springs.  Technically this swamp is considered a “Fen” as the water is alkaline. This view is looking south over
the length of the marsh -- a view that frames  an ancient oak towering in the distance.

Catalog No. 7
SPRING MEADOW
40 X 30 inches, Lascaux acrylic on canvas

This view is looking south toward the river bottoms from the foothills.  I
was following the creek that issues from a series of springs, and this view
presented itself.  The sky was brilliantly colored and ornamented with
wonderful spring-time clouds after a morning rain shower.  The
brightly keyed middle ground and distance contrasted against the
shadowy foreground begged to be painted.  This painting was pure joy
to create!

Catalog No. 8
INDIAN SWAMP -- DUSK
24 X 24 inches, Lascaux acrylic on canvas

There are a number of springs in the loess hills that border the river bottoms.  This is one we call “Indian Swamp” as there is an ancient trail and thong tree that points toward these springs.  Technically this swamp is considered a “Fen” as the water is alkaline.  I have always found the  floating mats of marsh marigold and duck weed beautiful.  At dusk the plant’s shiny leaves reflect the blue light of the high sky overhead, and the water glimmers darkly in shades of brown and olive.  At first the spring peepers and western chorus frogs were charming, but after six hours they nearly drove me mad with their incessant songs!

Catalog No. 9
SPRING RHAPSODY -- DAFFODILS
36 X 36 inches, Lascaux acrylic on panel

From across the room this wildly expressive painting actually has quite a bit of verisimilitude.  Since I had a rigid panel to work on I enjoyed laying
on thick slabs of pigment (up to 1/2 inch peaks!)  Daffodils are one of my favorite flowers, and the yellow and blue colors were a welcome relief
from the late winter palette of greyed earthtones.

Catalog No. 10
TWILIGHT GARDEN -- MAY
  plein air acrylic on canvas, 24 x 36 inches

The above painting was created in our garden  at twilight. I worked on the piece over a period of about a week when the garden was in it's mid-May glory.  I find twilight to be the most enigmatic time to paint.  In this piece, the field of new corn is illuminated by the setting sun to the right and the garden in the foreground in cloaked in lavender shadows.

Catalog No. 11
SUBLIMATION -- CORNFIELD AT TWILIGHT
24 x 48 inches, acrylic on canvas

This is a quintessential riverbottom scene, so indicative of why I have always been attracted to the river and its environs.   In the blue-violet haze of twilight the fields are swathed in mist and the landscape seems to dissolve into the atmosphere.
Catalog No. 12
SOFT AFTERNOON SKY
24 x 24 inches, acrylic on canvas

September in the river valley brings fields of ripening grain enveloped in exciting atmospheric conditions as cold fronts push through.  The cool, dry air collides with warm moist air over this valley and results in ever-changing cloud formations.  This is a view looking south-west from our home towards the river hills that frame the mouth of the Lamine River.

Catalog No. 13
DECEMBER RIVERBANK -- WILLOWS AT SUNSET
24 x 36 inches, acrylic on canvas

This painting is a scene on a sandbar just opposite the mouth of the Lamine River.  For several nights I stood near the water's edge and looked north-west -- the temperatures were in the twenties, Farenheight!  At this time in December the tips of the willow branches have a red coloration, further accentuated by the horizontal shafts of light from the sunset in the south-west.

Catalog No. 14
MISTY MORNING IN THE RIVERBOTTOMS -- LATE MAY
30 x 48 inches, oil on canvas

In May of 2000 our gardens were replete with, literally, thousands of roses, iris, peonies, dianthus and wisteria.  As I set up my painting sundries and prepared to paint the garden, I found my gaze drifting into the distance -- Looking past the prismatic blooms to the river flats.  Serene and mystical --  this serpentine prairie, across which the river has whip-lashed over the centuries, is as subtle and profound a motif as the water itself.  I find myself transported by the atmospheric haze which gently modulates through myriad tints of blue and lavender, and occasionally flashes coral and lemon at sunset or dawn, and glows with a pearlescent light as the moon rises over the valley.  Then, there are the archetypal trees -- this universal motif holding echoes of the Epte and the Seine, Monet, Pissarro and Van Gogh.

Catalog No. 15
JUNE THUNDERHEAD -- MOONRISE
36 x 24 inches, oil on canvas mounted on wooden panel

June Thunderheads are particularly stunning when they ride in the
southern sky with their peaks catching the last rays of the sunset and their bases shrouded in shadows and rain.  This particular night had an added attraction of a full moon illuminating the misty riverbottoms from above.

Catalog No. 16
SENTINELS -- SUMMER DELUGE
24 x 24 inches, acrylic on canvas

This painting was created DURING a torrential
thunderstorm.  As I rushed to paint the approaching
cold front, my motif was obliterated by the
downpour and the air overhead, literally, crackled
with electricity!  These two, huge cottonwood trees
frame my view to the west, looking toward
Arrowrock.  The paint surface is covered with streams
of pigment and craters -- artifacts of the rainstorm.

Catalog No. 17
DECEMBER SUNSET NEAR LISBON
24 X 24 inches, acrylic on canvas

This is another archetypal landscape image that is
burned into my consciousness:  a horizontal band of
trees backlit by a wintry sunset.  This was actually the
first painting of the Missouri River I created at this
site.  Later I made large pieces for this exhibit looking
south of this view.  In this piece, I flatten space and
look straight across the river creating serene,
horizontal bands of color.
 

Catalog No. 18
WOODLAND WATERFALL
36 X 48 inches, Lascaux acrylic on canvas

In the amazingly rich soil of the Missouri River foothills, a small trickle of water has worn beautiful formations in the native sandstone.  This pristine woodland scene is hidden in the bottom of an amazingly steep ravine or "holler".  The loess soil has been amended with eons of leaf compost and supports wildflowers of all descriptions.  This waterfall is encrusted with all sorts of mosses and a liverwort (unfortunate name) that smells like cattleya orchids!   The pinkish sprays of flowers in this piece are Dutchman's Breeches.  In the upper right of this piece one can see the a
nice rock shelter overhang.  I like to imagine the Osage or Missouri Indians sleeping there on a hunting expedition.

I sat with my boots in the water for several days painting this scene, and my eyes only about 18 inches from the canvas (my back to a wall of soil).  From a distance this painting "reads" quite naturalistically, yet up close it is an unintelligible web of interlaced pigments.

Catalog No. 19
MOSSY CASCADE
22 X 28 inches, Lascaux acrylic on canvas

For this painting, I moved my easel up to the base of the waterfall and painted a closeup of the rock formations, mosses. ferns and wildflowers.  A
few drips of water are discernable at the right of the canvas, as well as the fiddleheads of Christmas ferns as they emerge, and the delicate sprays
of dutchman's breeches.

Catalog No. 20
WOODLAND VESPERS
36 X 48 inches, Lascaux acrylic on canvas

This is another sandstone waterfall at the head of a small stream that winds its way to the Missouri River about one mile away.  As the sun set, I was looking south, and a line of distant trees in the background was emblazoned with a lemon-coral light.  The patterns of interlaced branches backlit by an opalescent sky reminded me of stained glass windows.  In the foreground, cool lavender shadows revealed woodland phlox in an otherworldly shade of periwinkle blue, glossy Mayapple umbrellas, delicate ferns and mosses.  Paw paw trees are unfolding their lacquered chartreuse leaves and in the distance a fuchsia haze of redbuds floats overhead and the damp smell of morels lingers underfoot.

Catalog No. 21
NOCTURNE
48X 48 inches, Lascaux acrylic, phosphorescent pigment
on 40 oz. Belgian linen, mounted on panel

In late June our garden is in its glory.  This painting captures the exuberant foliage and drifts of flowers that peak with the summer equinox.  The garden is submerged in the blue light of dusk and the humidity of the river valley. Huge clumps of the nocturnal hemerocallis citrina from China open their lemony- gardenia scented blooms in the evening air, and salmon tiger lilies float in the foreground.   Everywhere, the air is spangled with the chartreuse illuminations of lightning bugs .

As I was finishing this painting, I had one of the most primal painting experiences of my life.  To get the phosphorescent pigment in the right places, I had to work in total darkness, so I put the painting in a darkened room and turned the lights on and off to align the glow in the dark pigment with the lightning bug images.  To create the luminous clouds of fireflies I dipped my hands in the phosphorescent paint and massaged the pigment into the coarse linen.  As I was sculpting the air with swirls of light I had a flashback to childhood -- lightning bug face paint!

  When viewed in total darkness, this painting looks like a representation of outer space.  In half light the garden scene is still visible and the fireflies glow with eerie naturalism.

Catalog No. 22
SUMMER EVENING BY THE RIVER
96 X 48 inches, Lascaux acrylic on panel

This large painting is based on a plein air painting of a backlit river landscape, similar in motif and handling to the murals that will be
created for the North American eco-system of the World Aquarium.  I used quarts of pigment to encrust this piece with the sort of paint quality I call “Technicolor icing” .
 

CATALOG OF IMAGES