For the Beauty

I don’t do landscapes as often as flowers. You will notice that I often sneak in flowers in my landscapes. I am hopeless! I totally left reality when choosing color for this painting; well not bright purple and orange. I want to feel a little excitement when looking at a painting. Otherwise why go to the trouble of painting it. When I first started painting I was just glad to get something down that looked like what I was seeing. I now want to push it farther.

Red Tree

It is always important to have a center of interest in a painting. An easy way to make that happen is to make that center of interest different from other areas of the painting. Since a summer or spring landscape has a lot of green in it; a pop of red is unexpected,
. This guarantees an immediate attention getter, a position that is not dead center in the composition is important too.

Life Instructions

In 1987 I went to Matisse Retrospective at the museum of Modern Art in NYC. It was a huge  show featuring many of his works that had been hidden away from the public due to the Nazis. It was an overwhelming experience. His works are primarily interesting to me because of his use of pattern;often mixing 2 or 3 in one painting. I had finished this painting earlier but it lacked something. It was good enough but a little boring. I added some pattern to it that gave it some life, taking a little instruction from Henri Matisse.

Remember Me

I tend to paint florals more than landscapes but the same principles apply in both subjects. My one objection to landscapes in summer is that there is so much green that they can tend to be boring. In this landscape I tweaked the colors to make the painting more interesting. You may not find these exact colors in nature but they make for a more pleasing painting.

Game On

In a 2 dimensional painting texture usually has to be implied. Some artists use oil paint thickly
which adds a texture of its own. I choose to try to create texture by the use of value and brush strokes. in this painting there is a variety of texture. Smooth texture is in the blue cloth in the foreground which contrasts with the rough nubby texture of the basket. The flower petals would feel smooth to the touch but the way they are tightly layered would give them a ruffly feel If touched.

White Emperor Tulips

This painting has gone through a few versions.Each one has sat on a shelf and stared at me for a few days. I did not really like those versions very much; not really a dislike just not very interesting. I realized it needed something more. It had a background that was a pretty shade of blue but was too close in value to the leaves. There was not enough contrast in the painting. So I decided the dark background would work better and it did. Drama always wins!