Saturday, August 23, 2008

Plein Air ...is the desire to paint outside over?

No, I will still paint in the plein air method, lately I have been enjoying studio painting. I have been at the freeways again but this time I am taking what I learned in the field to the studio. Plein air has taught me many new approaches. The most use full tool I leaned that has carried over is the ability to finish paintings. I can plan a painting from start to finish with a beginning and an end. Plein air is defiantly not over! Check out my latest work both in the studio and out in the field.








Monday, August 18, 2008

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Plein Air Club Interview

Painting sold during interview

Saturday, August 2, 2008

"Everything becomes so complex that the human brain simplifies it to make since of it"

July is gone and August is here. I have just completed my second book and I am excited to start a new two month period. For those of you who don't know I produce a book every two months. These books work for me on two levels.

The first level allows me to have a mobile portfolio. I am able to take it with me and display it to many without having to bring pictures or originals.
The second level, It allows me to see my progress. Often things get bad before they get better. A bad painting is only a couple of steps away from becoming the greatest painting of all time,...... I truly believe this. The book allows me to view my success and see the failures that led to them. It is for this reason that I print everything......The good and the bad. Most recent my style has began to loosen up. With this loose style I paint in water color and oil. I paint in the two mediums in the same technique and I discovering the which medium I prefer .

To explain this discovery I will briefly explain the process. I will explain this process as a paint an oil and a watercolor which is the same method. I start by laying down some ground color. Usually a yellow orange or a pale yellow. Then I mix in a Violette and loosely describe linear forms allowing the yellow to mix with the Violette Producing a color the shoots through the spectrum changing from yellow to a desaturated red(AKA brown) to Violette. This play with the color spectrum gives the painting movement and lust full color. I then proceed to fill in color fields with reds greens and blues. These colors react with the Yellow brown Violette lines in exciting, unpredictable, and dramatic ways. After everything is filled in the wrestling match begins........ Trying to direct the eye, using line, through the color fields of the painting. I Complete the painting when all of these colors, line, and form in there complexity become simple. .....Everything becomes so complex that the human brain simplifies it to make since of it. A good painting plays with the mind. When a viewer looks at one of my paintings he or she first sees a simple design then they are pulled into a overwhelming complexity. They then become fascinated as there brain tries to make since of this image. "How can something be so complex and so calm" they ask them self's.

This complexity balance works better in oil than it does in watercolor because of drying time and texture. Watercolor prepares me and trains me for oil. I see watercolor more as sketching.