Night Sky
This is where the fun starts.
I’m going to start grabbing this and lifting it upward.
Grab it and pop it.
Jonny Horton wrote a beautiful song about the northern lights.
Northern Lights were running wild in the land of the midnight sun.
And I lived there for about a dozen years.
And that has to be. That has to be one of the prettiest countries in the world.
God was having a good day when he made Alaska.
You can pull these as high as you want them.
In some parts of the country they don’t see a lot of color in the northern lights.
Where I lived, right outside of Fairbanks in a little town called North Pole,
Sometimes we would see the lights in every color of the rainbow.
That makes it a little more interesting.
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Sunset Oval
Just to break up that straight line.
You know me and my big trees.
Let’s do it again.
Maybe there’s a big tree
There we go
He lives right there
And he’s got a crook in him
And he’s got another crook in him.
He needs a friend.
[whistles]
just pop in a few highlights
wherever wherever wherever wherever
put as many or as few limbs as you want in your world
you’ll find this to be one of the most fun things that you’ve ever done
just a second and we’ll pull this off and let you see
drop me a line. Let me know what you’re doing with some of these ideas.
I’d love to hear from you.
As many or as few as you want
Maybe there’s an old stick that lives right here
He’s an old crooked stick
Somebody stepped on him when he was little.
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Roadside Barn
Shhhhhhhhhhooooooo
Touch it and pull
Yup yup yup yup
Maybe there’s a little path
And you can just go crazy
In your world you put whatever
You think would be there
K. and. bring a little bit of the grassy things.
Right down so it brings all this together.
On this side of the path we need
A little more of these grassy areas
To bring all of this
Together,
You can create all of this beautiful land mass
Then maybe
Watch right here
Maybe
We put a fence.
Then we put some wire on that fence
You can do anything
You can do absolutely anything
Maybe there lives
Sure does.
A big ole tree
And a little tree.
Just like that.
Just like that.
Let’s put some highlight on that tree.
There he is.
This looks like a little birch tree that grew up in front of the barn.
Let’s just put an indication of a happy little tree limb here and there
Just here and there. Wherever you want em.
The clock on the wall tells me its time to leave you for today.
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A Walk in the Woods
Maybe like we’re walking in through the woods,
Just like so, just whip that around,
You’re going to become a mud mixer.
Let’s begin building some little bushes and stuff.
All right. Look at that. You can do it. I know you can.
Let’s move up to this big tree in the front here.
Let’s put some nice little leaves up here on the elm.
There’s a nice little bush that lives right here
If you’ve ever walked through the wood early in the morning
All the little creatures are out here, they’re all playing in the bushes and stuff
This is where they live, in these little bushes.
Just let your imagination run wild. Let your heart be your guide
In the time that you sit around worrying about it and trying to plan a painting.
You could have completed a painting already. Let it happen.
For so many years I was a traditional painter and I would spend sometimes
Weeks, on a picture. Here we let it happen. It comes right out of here.
It’s in you and you put it on the canvas.
If we’re going to walk through the woods we need a little path.
Let’s build us a happy little path. We’re going to let this path wander right down here.
Maybe there’s some nice little areas coming right through here.
Maybe maybe maybe as we’re walking through the woods
Maybe it rained last night. Maybe there came a nice little rain.
There’s little puddles. Now after it rains you always have little rain puddles.
In your world you can do anything that your heart desires.
My home is in Fairbanks, Alaska, and I’ve spent lots of time walking around
the woods talking to trees, squirrels, and little rabbits and stuff.
And I look at a lot of nature, and if painting teaches you nothing else,
It will teach you to look at nature, with different eyes, it will teach you to
See things that have been there all your life but you’ve never noticed
If it does nothing else but make you enjoy nature, it’s worthwhile
Look around, look at what we have, beauty is everywhere, you
Only have to look to see it. I talk too much sometimes.
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Mountain River
Maybe the water’s coming right along here
It’s just having a good time and
Oh my gosh. Bloop. Somebody has pulled the cork out.
And there it goes.
Just let it fall
And it splashed down through here
And it just wanders around
Wherever you want it to go
Push upward to make those little foamy things
Just let it wander right on down.
Think about individual bushes
Don’t just throw this in at random
We need something for this to stand
We’ll make a little rock.
Maybe it comes right over in here.
Wherever you want it.
Let’s put a happy little bush here and there
Maybe some grow right down in here
Let’s go on the other side
Over here. There lives a nice bush.
Think about individual though, I can’t say that enough.
We need something for this to stand on, too.
We’ll put a happy little stone that lives here.
Just pull down. Just pull it across.
Angles are very important when you’re doing this
Angles, angles, always look at the angles.
Let’s get crazy today. Maybe there’s a little blue bush.
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Leif Haven lives in Oakland, CA