Oil on canvas, 36 x 36 inches
In the studio
 
About this oil:
This oil painting began during my June Fine Art Workshop in Marshfield, MA, and was completed while teaching my July workshop at my home studio in Colorado.
 
I created it as a demonstration—exploring how to bring together varied, even discordant, colors into a unified and compelling composition. The painting went through several transformations.
 
The first version featured vertical trees, tightly grouped into a single dark mass. The concept was strong, and the color relationships were working, but I felt there was more to be discovered, so I pushed further, though the next version felt like two steps backward.
 
That’s when I remembered the advice of my painting mentor, Wolf Kahn: “Do violence to the picture.” And I did.
 
What followed was a series of bold, radical changes. I completely dismantled the second composition, allowing something entirely new to emerge—an arrangement of soft, color-rich bands that carry a quiet joy. It’s a painting that speaks in a whisper, but it sings.