New Work: The Light in the World I and II, oil on panel and canvas

The Light in the World
Oil on panel, 40 x 40 inches    Saks Galleries, Denver, CO, $6650 framed

The Light in the World
Oil on panel, 24 x 24 inches
Private collection 

It was a great honor to have recently have toured the Holy Land with a group wonderful people from Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Fortunately, we safely exited the country just before the virus began appearing there. There are so many good memories of the people, places and experiences.

Our guides kept us busy every day and although we took a lot of photos, they were mostly of the sights with very few that were the sort of scenes that I would be painting from. 

An exception to the daily travel photos was an evening in Jordan at a nice hotel on the edge of the Dead Sea. I was sitting alone with this long, unobstructed view across the water to Israel. It was a quiet evening before sunset and I had the long promenade to myself. As the light was changing, I began to shoot the scene. There may be art in this... As it turns out, I did the 24 x 24 study on panel and used to for the larger, 40 x 40 oil on canvas.

After my return to the U.S., I kept thinking about that evening and how to create a compelling painting from that idea. Ignoring the main color from the photos, I was struck by the tiny bit of orange-yellow of the sunset in a portion of the photo and I decided to create a painting exclusively with those glowing colors. I rejected the sunset portion by using a heavy crop on the photos, just leaving a portion of the long shoreline, sea and sky.

Once the painting began, the land mass became the compositional anchor and the place where the colors started to flow. As the painting progressed, the flow became an important part of the sea and sky as well. I didn't catch it at the time, but my insistence on this limited group of colors and movement in every part of the scene is what made it all come together in an interesting way.

As I was adding the last brushstrokes to the work, a title came to me, something that touches us all, "The Light in the World."

New Work: Saccades XIV, oil on canvas, 50 x 50 inches

Saccades XIV, oil on canvas, 50 x 50 inches  $9850 framed
Saks Galleries, Denver

With this view of the forest, the colors are very unnatural but the result is believable and interesting. While painting this oil I continued to lay in new colors, pushing this forest view beyond the typical portrait of a place. This wood doesn't exist in nature but it easily recognizable for what it is, a stand of trees receding into space.

As the painting developed, different lighting options were tried out: color, brightness, shadows-no shadows and more. Finally, I decided on a soft, yellow glow that permeated everything, making it difficult to find the source of the light.

There is a bit of sky in the upper right, but it's not a focal point and that is the nature of this Saccades series. The composition draws the eye across the canvas in all directions without resting.

It's an interesting result seeing this oil on the wall because the entire canvas becomes an art object rather than a picture of a place. The large oil transcends the pictorial and becomes a glowing presence in the room. It was a satisfying task to create this delightful and intriguing place.

New Work: Evening Song, Foothills oil on canvas, 48 x 48 inches

Evening Song, Foothills
Oil on canvas, 48 x 48 inches  $10400 framed
Saks Galleries, Denver

At the end of my day in the studio, I often walk out back and see tree patterns in the large meadows near the foothills. The sun has already set and the available light changes the look of everything. I have often wanted to paint a pure arrangement, just the basic elements of that view.

On view at Saks Galleries, Denver

This is not a portrait of that place, but an arrangement of shapes set into a pattern of soft colors. Artists realized ages ago that brushstrokes can indicate direction and the Impressionists went further, breaking up the colors in a new and magical way.

There is a bit of both here to keep things interesting, but my focus was create a simple landscape composition with aquas and blues. As the painting developed, the lighting became softer and I found myself just following along, enjoying the developing scene.

All of the sky and most of the blue hill in this finished work are from the first painting sessions and it was fascinating to observe how both areas seemed to take on a glow as the rest of the oil moved forward.

This is one of the softer, lower-intensity pieces I have ever done and I like the presence and calm it gives to the room.

It's like a whisper. 

New Work: Aglow in Purple, oil on canvas 40 x 40 inches

Aglow in Purple, oil on canvas 40 x 40 inches
Arden's Gallery, Houston, TX

For a couple of years I had a canvas in the corner of the studio with a start that never went anywhere. There were trees on the left and right, but it just wasn’t working and the composition needed a fresher start.

So, I declared that today was the day, as I put the canvas on the easel. and after some study, I made a simple plan. The idea was to use a lot of greens and make something interesting from that poor start. Different compositions were tried but nothing clicked until I added the purples to the center of the scene. It was an experiment, but once that color made contact with the canvas, everything else just fell into place. Soon I was tuning the other colors to accommodate that far purple. All was going well.

Not really.

After putting the oil away for a couple of days and bringing it into the studio again, it was lacking something. Again, just to see what would happen, I put in a few bright lime notes up in the trees and then the birds sang.

I really enjoy going for the unexpected result. Big thrills await!