Yellows Moving Through, oil on canvas, 36 x 72 inches
Exhibiting: Sorelle Gallery, Westport, Connecticut
$9750 framed
 
About this oil:
I am fascinated with forest patterns and it's a recurring theme in my work. There's an intricacy in this composition that expresses a forest, but it isn't a portrait of one. This is an abstracted idea, a place where forms, shapes, and color are free to move around and find their own logic.
 
This was a painting I looked forward to working on over several weeks, letting it develop alongside other canvases in the studio, one of many puzzles going at once. All of the elements in this oil are movable and variable. There were more tree trunks at the beginning and they were selectively removed as the painting moved forward. Everything that remains is part of a balanced composition. It mimics nature because it's chaotic, but there is an aesthetic and a subtle flow at work.
 
The color is particularly useful because it sets up depth and motion. By using variations of greens and yellows, one side of the painting can become warmer than the other, creating a gentle flow from left to right. Adjustments are consistently being made, and even though there isn't an absolute right or wrong solution, it's pretty obvious when one option is better than another.
 
This composition is like a dance, with a lot of choreography at work among all of these actors. The trees find their place on stage and then elegantly move from side to side and front to back. The color is part of the dance too, reacting to the arrangement the way an orchestra provides mood and emotional impact to everything around it.
 
Eventually the complexities begin to solve themselves, the chaos settles down, and the result is a graceful, modern and peaceful view of a forest.