New work: Soft Evening Colors

Oil on panel, 16 x 16 inches $2150 framed

In the studio

To purchase

About this oil:

This was a throughly enjoyable painting to make. It had a mind of its own and I didn’t know what was going to happen from one moment to the next.

It began with that grouping of blue trees in the back and two trees standing in the front. To complete the composition, strips of field and sky.

Then I was immediately stuck... it just wasn't coming together so I retired it to back in the studio for um…. 2 years.

Back to the now, it was the end of my painting session yesterday when I saw that neglected oil setting in a corner like a lonely pet. I picked it up and decided to do something unusual just to get  something going.

Two trees became four and to purposely keep things off-balance and interesting, I decided to paint in their shapes using soft blues and purples. The rest of the oil wasn’t developed at this point and those pale trees created a puzzle that was not going to be solved that day so I let it go again.

The following day, that little painting was calling out, insisting actually, for solutions. It is like having a conversation and immediately, ideas began to flow, but only one at a time.

First, it was the greens lightly laid in at the top on the blue line of trees. Then, to brighten and complicate the grasses in the foreground.

Oh, now light is coming in, so in response, greens and reds were added to the four trees. Then, to put in that glowing yellow-orange just above the dark tree line. In turn, that required brightening and adjusting the sky using three colors to create a glowing background. With that, the painting finally came together.

It all began with a small risk, creating bluish trees, an unintuitive choice that instigated a delightful and colorful conversation.