New work: Red Forest, White Hill, oil on canvas, 30 x 30 in.

Red Forest, White Hill

Oil on canvas, 30 x 30 inches

Framed, $4400

Exhibiting: Dominique Boisjoli Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM

About this oil:

There are times when I just want to create a red forest, but this wasn’t a straightforward process… actually they rarely are.

My first attempt wasn’t very interesting, so I set it aside and returned later with a better idea. This time, I added the dark trees on the left and pushed the dark effect and that’s when everything began to come together.

I enjoy the challenge of building an interesting composition and balancing it with a number of high-key colors that bring the scene to life. As the oil progressed, the painting became brighter, more expressive and confident, turning that original false start into a finished work with a strong, memorable presence on the wall.

Oh, and that white hill? It was something that appeared when I was first laying out this oil. It’s just a sliver of white and like the red trees, it has very little basis in reality, but I like that unexpected sliver of space between the trees and the sky.