More about Winters Evening and Golds Descending Oils on canvas, $4400 framed each.Visit Ken's website
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Exhibiting at Saks Galleries, Denver
Gallery Group Show, "A World of Thanks," Opening Reception Friday, Nov. 17, 5 - 7 pm, and Open House, Saturday Nov.18,10 - 4 pm.
In Cherry Creek 3019 E 2nd Ave, Denver, CO 80206
Phone: 303-333-4144
About this oil:
Sometimes, making a canvas is a pleasure and this is one of those pieces. I do my share of driving in the Colorado winters and my attention is continually drawn to the bright and dark patterns of the landscape.
The temptation is to replicate that idea but for this oil my intention was to create a compelling, snowy landscape with variations of blue. Instead of the high-contrast approach, everything is softened and atmospheric. The light on the snow is made purposely brighter in a couple of places and it carries the eye outward.
There is much to see compositionally and to create more interest, hundreds of trees are represented here in groups and individually, each represented to create a variety of looks and colors.
The trees, hills and snow make a calming combination of complexity and simplicity.
Exhibiting: Sorelle Gallery
About this oil:
As a colorist, sometimes I just want to use color in a simple and unbounded way. Since it’s currently fall, the yellow trees in abundance compelled me to begin a canvas with those trees as a focus.
The painting began with a much more complicated background of three, bright colored hills and they remained there as I worked out the lake patterns, increasing the complexity.
After a few days of considering what to do next, a solution never presented itself. I was stuck.
The painting had real potential but it as if a key was stuck in the lock. That’s when I realized the original idea of simply expressing color had been overtaken by all of that detail in the background.
So the paints came out, brushes were loaded and the hills were merged into one mass. Detail was kept to a minimum and the background became a wall of light and subtly blended color.
Everything supports and enhances the yellow trees and the large band of color in the back adds drama and power to the work. It was an elegant and colorful solution.
On the southern drive out of Steamboat Springs, CO, I have often caught the setting sun in a bank of clouds. The fields during the winter are covered in snow for months at a time and in high contrast. Because of the brightness, the snow doesn’t give up its color easily. Our mind says the snow is white but that’s not completely true.
There are many subtitles in these snow-covered fields and they are all opportunities for color and light-play. I purposely brought the brightness of the snow down to allow a number of other less-white colors to come into play. Since the light intensity is down a bit, the colors are more apparent and together, they create texture and a flow in the topography. When a bright note is needed, it really shines.
This work has a variety of blues to keep things interesting and to create movement. The sun was situated in the painting at the very beginning, but as it happened at the very end, considerable changes were made to the sky and sun with quick, open brushwork – a surprise ending!
Because of its scale and color combinations, I actually had the sensation of cold when I was signing this one, a happy outcome.
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