Oil on canvas, 48 x 36 inches, framed in a pure gold float frame
Exhibited: Breckenridge Gallery, Breckenridge, CO
 
My grateful thanks to the private collector that purchased this oil.
 
About this oil:
As I was painting this oil, my mind would often go to a couple of artists that lived in the same town, Monet and Bonnard. They were both ‘dabbers’ with Monet saying he never finished a painting and Bonnard with this story, “When he had mixed a new colour that was just right, he would revisit and retouch old work. Once, he persuaded his friend and fellow Symbolist Édouard Vuillard to distract a museum guard whilst he added his latest colour to a hung painting.”
Quoted from the Port Magazine

To begin this piece, I pulled out an older canvas that was at a dead end. I had struggled mightily with it, resulting in a very thick veneer of paint. Perfect! For this new composition, I welcomed the ready-made texture and began to lay in the general outlines of this work.
 
The plan was to create a fully impressionist work with hundreds of marks to create the effect of tightly packed vegetation, but with the illusion of light and space. The arrangement was a simple one and open to colors of all kinds.
 
With these open brushstrokes, it quickly became apparent that each mark had a meaning. Some colors became backgrounds and others moved forward in the space differently. It was a bit like 3-D chess and a real delight to participate in a work that was essentially painting itself and bringing me along for the ride.