Grateful Notices: Iced Over

Iced Over, oil on canvas 36 x 48 inches
Private collection

This painting was a real adventure. First, it came from a photograph of a series of white buildings nestled into a valley. The composition intrigued me - it was the angle of the flat white rooftops nestled in the monochromatic valley.

I kept going back to it and eventually made a tiny sketch that converted these basic elements into a stream surrounded my blues.

The painting is about simplicity and sophistication, many colors reading as two.

I finished the canvas over a year ago, only seeing it again on occasion. Late last year I put it on the wall and immediately understood how to make it better. Complexity was added, then partially removed. Colors and contrasts were added and sometimes modulated down with grey to make the colors glow or to make more atmosphere.

In the end, it is a simple and inviting composition about light and dark, blues and whites. After working on it all this time and making hundreds of moves on it's surface, I'm convinced that it exists somewhere.

Exhibition: PACE Center, January 16, 2015

The PACE Center in Parker, Colorado 2015

Photos from the opening reception Friday, Jan 16, 6-8 pm. 

The exhibit includes my works in a number of mediums: oil, pastel and monotypes.
The exhibit continues through Saturday, March 7, 2015


My sincere thanks for everyone that was a part of putting this show together and for all the friends and patrons that came by and sent their good wishes.
It's not an everyday event for an artist to have a survey show. This is an honor and a thrill for me.

Some of these works are for sale and others are in my personal or private collections.
View all the available works for sale in this show and with my galleries on my website. Feel free to contact me directly should you have any questions.

New Catalog: A Survey of Paintings and Prints at the PACE Center

This exhibition catalog can be purchased at the PACE Center or online. 30 color pages and text by the artist. $10 plus $4 postage.  purchase here


Photos from the opening night

New Work: Deep Red Forest, oil on canvas, 48 x 60 inches

Deep Red Forest

oil on canvas, 48 x 60 inches

I was in a mood for red, a LOT of red, 5 feet of red. This was a real pleasure to to and I didn't rush it. This came together in a months time. I kept it visible in the studio while I worked on other oils. Those reds did raise the bar on color... it was a real presence among the other works in progress.

In the Studio: January 12, 2015

Here are a couple of new works going to my show at the new Arden's River Oaks Gallery in Houston. On the easel is a 5 x 7 foot variation (untitled at this point) of the 30 x 30 oil sketch to the right. I did that small sketch at a Making it Fine Art Workshop in Omaha, NE last year.

Upper left is a 4 x 5 foot oil that is also for the exhibit, Deep Red Forest. On the floor is an oil left and pastel right, both in progress.

I'm looking forward to seeing what happens next!

New Work: Light Through the Green Woods, oil 40 x 40 inches

Light Through the Green Woods

oil on canvas, 48 x 48 inches

Exhibiting at the PACE Center, Parker, CO  Jan-Mar 2015

This is an oil that has been in progress since early summer. It has been through a great many layouts, color shifts and tantrums. The tantrums were not mine, but I could hear the painting screaming for attention. In the end, it came down to using a lot of colors to keep the greens from overtaking the palette and letting a color shine through the trees. I say a color because the light coming through has been pale blue, pink, aqua, orange, lime and finally yellow over the lime.

There are remnants of starts and underpainting everywhere, adding to the complexity and magic. The painting is finally happy and so am I.

Off to the next canvas!
Ken

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

In the Studio: December 4, 2014

The studio is becoming a busy and crowded space!

I am preparing for two shows in January, 2015.

Lower right is an art class demo from Omaha, Nebraska a few months back. It is a 36 x 36 oil, untouched from the initial session. It was a very nice start (part of the class lesson that day).

Upper right is a completed 40 x 40 oil that has been through many, many transformations and finally ending in success.

Center is another oil, 48 x 48, that went from 'good enough - finished' to something more dramatic and appealing. It is almost complete after going through a complete metamorphosis in a dramatic fashion. Before I cleaned off the painting palette for the day, I took those 15ish colors and quickly applied them in an overall fashion to the entire painting, changing palette, contrasts, composition and the trunk patterns. It developed into a new start over what was a finished oil and I'm very happy with the new result. Very little is left to do here.

Bottom left: a 36 x 48 oil after one session. It has great possibilities and I'm looking forward to following where it takes me next.

Upper left is a 48 x 72 oil that is taken from the small oil on the bottom right. These two oils are a perfect representation of where a great start can take you. All the information I need for that 7 foot oil is right there in the smaller demo. 

The PACE Center in Parker, CO will have what is essentially a retrospective of my works in various mediums: oil, pastel, monotypes and collage. There will be a catalog of the exhibit as well.  More information on that mid-January opening will follow.

I'm excited to announce that my Houston gallery of many years is expanding into a new space in a very prestigious part of the city, January of 2015. The new gallery name will be Arden's River Oaks and the grand opening date is yet to be announced. I'll have a number of new works including the 4 x 7 in progress here.

Enjoy the holiday season!

Ken