Oil on canvas, 36 x 48 inches, framed in a pure gold float frame.
Exhibiting: Sorelle Gallery, Westport, Connecticut
About this oil:
I was thinking about creating an oil of a forest view without too much foliage. It would be about how the light comes through and from there, I would explore the variables.
First, I used a few colors for the background, not what you see here, but a variety of soft tones to set up a rhythm of color behind the trees. Then, with broad, open strokes, I put in the trunks and leaves making a complex and elegant pattern.
From this point on, the idea of the light coming through the trees was central to what would follow. As an artist, this is an exciting juncture. Even with the composition in place, the painting has unlimited possibilities: day or night scene, color combinations, soft or hard focus and more.
I really didn’t know where I wanted to go, other than to make something fine and memorable, but where next?
As a colorist, I did what colorists do, adding a few colors and observing what the painting called out for: contrast here, diffuse light there and more color but softly. Unexpectedly, a shimmer of light began to show and I followed that, creating a soft glow that diffused the light everywhere.
What followed was the equivalent of walking in a remarkable forest, with hours of seeing new things as a calm settled into the studio space. It was one of those times when the painting created itself and when it was done, the spell was lifted.
That’s when the title came to me, “Light Emerging – Diffused Blue”