Grateful Notices: Soft Autumn Light, oil on canvas, 48 x 48 inches

Soft Autumn Light
Oil on canvas, 48 x 48 inches
Exhibited: Saks Galleries, Denver Private collection, Denver

This oil began as a smaller, 24 x 24 inch study, Bright Conversation, below.

Bright Conversation
Oil on panel, 24 x 24
Exhibited: Sorelle Gallery, New Canaan, CT
More about this oil on Ken's blog, For the Color

This composition really appealed to me and after finishing the smaller oil, I began the 4 foot square version.  The light was shifted to the right side and the palette focused on greens and blues. The foliage is more open in this version and there is more undulation in the foreground.

The effect on the larger canvas is a more open landscape with increased depth and motion. I am very happy with both of these versions and grateful that they are both in private collections. Thank you!

Grateful Notices: Autumn into Mauve, oil on canvas, 48 x 48 inches

 Autumn into Mauve, oil on canvas, 48 x 48 inches
Private collection

First of all my sincere thanks to the kind couple that purchased this artwork for their home.

Some years ago, a friend of mine attended a Neil Welliver art class and passed on a nice piece of advice. Neil said something to the point of 'insisting' on a color. I had that in mind when I was working on this piece.

The initial idea was all about a red forest but early into the composition the mauves started to win out. The blue-purple hues were making the painting begin to sing, so I went with it. Once I started adding the forward trees it became apparent that the mauve tones were working really well. That's the point were I decided to cut back on the amount of foliage so that more of the background would show through.

The autumn yellows and golds played off that wall of mauve nicely but something was still lacking. Reds! They went in at almost full strength and some a bit of orange added in.

Still, the painting was demanding more. Adding the dark area at the bottom left of the background created more depth along with left-to-right interest, a nice move and finally, those few green bits of foliage added a more natural element to this bit of forest.

The colors here are very direct, each insistent on creating a better artwork. Thanks Neil!

Grateful Notices: Long Tree Line and Forest Brights pastels

Forest Brights, pastel on sanded paper 15 3/8 x 10 7/8 inches

Long Tree Line,  pastel on sanded paper 10 7/8 x 20 1/4 inches

As it turns out, both of these early pastels were experiments that became the start of a number of other works in oils and monotypes. I learned a lot from these works and it was a joy for a good friend to want them.

She had purchased a pastel from me years ago and it was lost in her California house fire. Happily, she has recovered nicely and these two works help to fill in her collection. Smiles all around!