New Work: Red Borders, oil on panel, 24 x 24 inches

Red Borders
Oil on panel, 24 x 24 inches     $2150 unframed
Dominique Boisjoli Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM

It is always an interesting exercise to paint a piece with one predominant color. In this case, it's these red trees. My original idea was to make the trees fill the entire area, but as the painting moved forward, a different composition presented itself.

A bright stripe emerged and that became the lake or stream. From there, the composition began to move back into the space behind the trees, opening up the opportunity to try out more reds. The sky and blue hill in the far back helped to frame the red trees in the back and it made for a more interesting composition.

Funny how the painting will make demands on the artist and those background trees were very insistent on being more interesting than I had first intended. After 3-4 different experiments and variations, the far trees settled into place and from there, it is was a matter of bringing is more color and light where needed.

Funny how the background ended up taking much more time than the trees in front. The extra effort made for a far better oil with extra complexity and two more reds... it's like the cherry on top!