Exhibited: Saks Galleries, Denver
 
My thanks to the Illiniois collector of this oil and to all at Saks Galleries to make it happen.
 
About this oil:
I set out to do a landscape and cloud painting with a lot of layers and colors. A number of hues were applied at the start without trying to calculate how they would work together. My challenge was to make each of these layers interesting, and somehow bring it all together in the end.
 
At the start, the sky was full of clouds with too many having similar shapes and angles, but that could be worked out later. The land masses followed and it was there that I began to set up the first bright colors and the inclusion of reds.
 
Everything was coming together a bit too quickly, so I took a number of short breaks the first day and later, I put days in between the sessions. It was in those last two days that I began to get a number of ideas to bring this artwork to a good conclusion. 
 
Primarily, it began to come down to opening up the cloud forms and introducing areas of light behind to create depth, drama and a variety of patterns. At times, it was like watching the sky outside as clouds and colors came and went. 
 
The painting was really coming to life, almost as if it was painting itself. Finally, I worked the paints to give the impression of atmosphere. Care was given to leave the bottom landscape slice as it was first blocked in, rough and organic. As the scene moves upward, the paler blues and purples create more complicated forms, airiness and by their presence, harmonize all of the colors in the oil.