New Works: View Through the Orange and Red Woods and Brightly Lit Woods

View Through the Orange and Red Woods
oil on canvas, 40 x 40 inches
Exhibiting at the PACE Center, Parker, CO  Jan-Mar 2015





















Brightly Lit Woods
oil on canvas, 48 x 72 inches

I love doing these deep forest scenes and the possibilities are endless. A few months before, I had cropped another forest scene and seeing new possibilities with a yellow moving to red, I was eager to start the very next morning. These two canvases are the result.

Since I have a lot of works in progress (you may want to try that) I slowly worked up the 40 x 40 as a study. It took about a month to finish and then I began the 4 x 6 foot version. It wasn't a matter of simply stretching the image. Adjustments had to be made to allow the top foliage to open up more and with a bit more color variety. A lot of time was spent making the yellow glowing background on the left read differently from the background yellow trees on the right. The two yellows never connect and they have to read separately.

The reds set up the excitement and the complex verticals make it all believable.

These are great puzzles to work out in the studio. It feels great painting in 2015.

Happy New Year!
Ken