My latest work is a departure from the paintings inspired by the current season. This work is titled “Crow Foot” and represents a departure from my “normal” work in several ways.

“Crow Foot”

20″ x 20″

This work looks more like autumn than any other, although I had no particular season in mind. This work is more about color and design than anything else. The important subject is the play of light and shadow on the foreground tree trunk and on the ground. The contrasting of light and dark,warm and cool is a favorite concept for me. This painting uses both to present a view into a shadowy forest on a warm, sunny day. In many ways this is a minimalist work. There is little texture on either the tree trunks or on the forest floor or even in the paint marks themselves. There is consistency in the treatment of edges - nearly all shapes are hard-edged. The combination of these elements along with the warm dominance are unifying factors. The work uses simple shapes and forms with the rhythm of shadows providing movement and excitement. The square format is unusual for me and not really deliberate, although it seems to contribute to the modern, minimalist feel of the work. The original sketches, shown below were drawn in squares - for no particular reason, except that the square format appealed to me at the time. If you are interested in the process, read on….

As is often the case, I perused some old sketchbooks for ideas for this painting. In this case, one contained this series of three sketches of the foot of this old tree in the woods. The sketches are undated but it seems as if they had been done within the past few years. All were completed in an unusual square format. The sketches, shown below, are thumbnails each being approximately 2″ x 2″.

Thumbnail Sketches for “Crow Foot”

These sketches explore the composition of the shapes and values for the finished work. It is only since sharing my work on this blog that I have discovered how creation of a painting actually stretches over very long periods of time for me - months or years. Without dates, there is no way to be certain exactly when these sketches were completed. Clearly the pencil thumbnails convinced me that the composition should feature one main tree trunk with roots in the immediate foreground and lit by side light - since both color sketches feature that composition. Generally, the color sketches are completed after finding a value thumbnail sketch that I am comfortable with. As I recall, these were done sometime in the past year, although, again, they are undated. In rummaging through a portfolio of older works, I came upon these two color sketches, after I had completed the two studies shown below.

Color Sketches for “Crow Foot”

Two small compositions based on the same sketches. After discovering the pencil sketches, I completed these two color studies. Although they began as studies, I brought them to the stage of finished work and gave them titles.

“Old Crow 1″ “Old Crow 2″

Each of these works explores a slightly different viewpoint and points of emphasis. Both are somewhat less lively, even more foreboding and moody than the larger work. As studies, each helped in the decision process, especially in terms of color, shape and placement.

“Equinox Road”

20″h x 27″W

This work is available - contact me for more information

This work, with its final details and adjustments made only a few days ago, represents the final statement of a series of explorations in paint. It’s title, as well as the painting itself is more metaphorical than literal. The idea began with a quick color sketch in early February. That sketch, show below, was created on the fly focusing on composition and color rather than subject.

“Winter Sketch”

Thumbnail sketch 3″ x 4″

Although the idea was to explore a winter theme, once completed, the sketch appeared to feel more like the the time between winter and spring, where winter hangs on in patches of snow while the brightening sun spreads warmth over the cold landscape. A few days later, after having considered the initial sketch, and mulled over the image, I created another thumbnail sketch, shown below. This sketch was created specifically to explore a color scheme that would better convey the contrast between gathering warmth and retreating cold. There are more warm hues and warmer mixtures of the cool hues and a stronger play of direct light.

After completing this sketch I decided to do a larger study to help work out composition, color and color mixes. This work, shown below, is the result. It was compelling enough to be given a title. More importantly, it was invaluable in discovering where I would encounter problems and showed where the the composition would need adjustments.

“Equinox Time”

8″h x 12″w

This work is available - contact me for more information

In earlier posts I have talked about the process of creating a painting. The question is often asked and it is a struggle to answer because, for me at least, so much of the process occurs in thought and consideration rather than in action. This post includes four physical works completed between Feb. 4 and March 30 - almost two months. While these were not the only sketches and paintings started, worked or completed in that time, the question could be asked as to whether these four couldn’t all have been completed in just a few days. The answer is both yes and no and has to do with the internal, non-linear, often wandering, parts of the process.

Thanks for taking a look at this latest work. Enjoy the coming of spring!

March in Vermont is when you can begin to anticipate spring, although it is not guaranteed to arrive until May!. My Monday morning painting class is a group of ladies who are interested in subjects that are found in classical still life paintings - dishes, fruit, & flowers. Recently, we began painting a floral composition - partly to learn some techniques that work well for this kind of work, and partly because we are all looking forward to the coming of spring. My painting turned out surprisingly nice, considering that it was painted over the course of 4 weeks - I would work on it during our class for demonstration purposes and then put it aside until the next class. Also, it is rare for me to paint still life, particularly those that are somewhat formal in nature, like this one.

In any case, here is the finished work, aptly titled “Classroom Composition”. The work is 13 1/2″ H x 9 1/2W and currently hangs in my studio.

On January 23, I left a post about a new work that was on the board. That post was a somewhat detailed description and illustration of the process of creating a new painting. It included a number of sketches, both in pencil and in watercolor.

Well, the work is finally finished and is presented below - or I should say one version is finished. More on that below.

This watercolor painting is titled “West of Tinkham” and is 9″ h x 13″ w. It is so named simply because the original pencil sketch, made in November 2005, has a note “On Myers Road, west of Tinkham”. This place in Shaftsbury, Vermont is a favorite sketching area of mine. The area is very rural with both a great deal of forested land as well as many open, rolling fields. I enjoy the look of rolling fields in winter. When one thinks of a blanket of snow, the tendency is to think in terms of the whole surface of the earth covered in a uniform layer of snow which covers everything. Even in this snowy part of the world, unless there is a substantial amount of the stuff, the earth generally shows through here and there. For the painting, the task was to create the feeling of those rolling fields and forested hills while also creating a well balanced, well designed watercolor painting.

My earlier post indicated that I expected to finish the work within a week. As often happens, the work took longer than expected. While working on this a painting, there are many short burst of intense “brush and paint to paper” work, and many longer periods of staring at the work while evaluating it - such as it was at each level of completion.

As mentioned above, the point was to create a feeling and mood, in the context of a well designed work. Winter scenes always present a unique design challenge in balancing the values of the various passages - for the most part, winter landscape paintings will always include both whites and very dark darks along with the mid values. As I see it, there must either be more white or more dark with enough mid-value areas to stabilize the value structure. The sky, distant background and dark areas that represent forested land all went in quickly. Then came the non-snow covered fields. Initially, only the immediate foreground, the middle-left field and a small patch of visible earth on the distant far-left field were painted in. The remaining snow-covered fields appeared very stark and empty. I added some subtle, light washes to the snow covered areas in order to tone them down and unify them with the rest of the work. While it helped, it was not enough. Over the course of the past week, I have continued to carefully place additional areas of brown earth - starting first in smaller areas - first the distant field in the upper right, then the closer field in the upper left. Finally, touches of earth showing through on the far distant middle field were added along with some dry brush work in the foreground field on the left. Compare the treatment of these areas to the color sketches in the earlier post.

At the beginning of this post, I remarked that this painting is one version of the painting. It is often the case that a sketch or series of sketches will inspire more than one painting. This is likely the case for this particular series. As mentioned, this is a smaller work. I had in mind the idea that this composition was a good basis for a larger work. In addition, in working through the sketches, several different color schemes seemed to work as well as this one. While the next version is not on the board at the moment, there are likely others to come.

There is a new watercolor painting “on the board”, as I like to put it. The paintings that I create in the studio are stretched on gator board, so anything that I am currently working on is “on the board”. While the painting is not complete, I often get asked about the process creating a painting. The process used to create this painting is a good example.

The beginning of our winter was snowier than usual, so it had me thinking about the landscape as it looks and feels covered with snow.

All new paintings have to start with an inspiration and an idea. When beginning a new work, I often look back at sketchbooks – new and old - for the inspiration. This time around, I came upon a pencil sketch created over two years ago.

The sketch was made on site in an area west of Shaftsbury, VT. I call it the Myers Road area, because it’s generally the road I take to find a good painting or sketching spot.

Although the sketch was done on a cloudy and - according to the notes scribbled on the page - windy November day, there was no snow on the ground. When looking at the sketch this time around, the value arrangement was such that I was reminded of a snow covered landscape. The inspiration was found – rolling hills and farmland on a cold winter day.

When creating a studio painting, I create many sketches – both in pencil and with watercolor. In a way, these sketches are the process since they allow me to explore various arrangements of shape, color and value that will support the main idea of the work. For this composition, the initial few pencil thumbnail sketches and color compositions were created concurrently, working on one, going to another, maybe coming back to an earlier one and so on.

This is the page with my pencil sketches – it is the page from a 9” x 12” sketchbook. All of the sketches, even the larger one at the top took minutes to complete, at most. Although it may appear that they were all were created at the same time, they were actually created individually, from top to bottom and left to right between January 16 and January 22, as a reaction or response to an earlier pencil or color sketch.

The first color sketches were created based on the first (topmost) pencil sketch.

This sketch explores abstract design and color. Another initial color sketch, not shown here,  was painted to explore shape and certain details.

After a couple of days of living with the initial sketches, I went back to work on the composition. For this part, I wanted to create some additional color sketches in order to explore some different color mixtures and different treatment of the sky. In all, four color studies were created, each about 6” x 9” in size. The sketch below seemed to best support the main idea.

All four sketches explored color combinations and value shapes as they might appear in the finished work. At this stage,  none of them grabbed me. I liked the composition of shapes and value, but felt that none depicted the emotion and drama I wanted in the painting.

I took a break from working on the sketches and decided to refresh the paint on my palette. Maybe it was the look of the paint as it oozed from the tubes, but a couple colors that I hadn’t considered previously really caught my eye. I quickly  worked these colors into three new color sketches shown in order below.

These sketches came together quickly. The first is very abstract, concerned more with shape and value. The second is a bit more representative and focuses on balance, contrast and movement. The third explores color and refines the foreground detail just a bit.

If you are still with me this far, congratulations and thank you. In some respects, the process is tedious and boring looking in from the outside.  It was difficult to keep the description of it this short. Creation of  this composition played out over the course of about one week.  In reality, this process can stretch out over the course of days, weeks or months. What is described here is the externally active parts of the process. What I have left largely un-described is the back and forth action between activity and thought; between exploration and evaluation. It is in this part of the process that the painting is truly created. 

With inspiration, idea and composition in hand, the paper and board were prepared, the composition transferred and the painting underway. The painting that results from this process will be posted as soon as it is done, most likely within the coming week.