and heres the finale "Maybe" 30 x 20

Here is the completion.  I hope you all enjoyed this and it was informational.  I
am often asked how I get the look that I do and it has been my pleasure to share..


30 x 20
"Maybe"

refining the painting

Starting to work on the flowers

More refining and brightening up the whole painting.  I highly recommend
a red gel for your work.  It allows you to see values more accurately.

Constantly pushing and scraping.  I do have a vision in my head and I continue
to maneuver the paint around til I can see the finish.  When I started on this I was
going to make the vase solid and the table white.  The vase needed to be transparent and
the table painted white was just glaring. My eye kept going to that spot and it's not what
I wanted.  So I toned down the table and added some orange to the white til it was a tone
I could live with and didn't fight the flowers.

First Lay In

  

This is my first lay in keeping the values of the painting by
placing the lights and darks and keeping a balance.  It's always best
to have either more light and less dark or the other way around. It
makes it more pleasing to the eye.

After the Lay In I get to play more with colors and to just reaffirm
the lights.  Making sure I am aware of where the flowers are and the way that
they are turned.

I am playing with brightening up the palette as
a whole.  If you go back and look at my first sketch you
will see that not only do I sketch but make color notes.

Lets put on the paint

My Palette.  I love seeing other artist's palettes. Sometimes I think they get that from those colors. Its all very mystifying 

This becomes my first lay in of Paint.  If you remember my sketch you will see that I have

placed these abstract shapes where I want the painting to develop and in what areas.  This is a very time consuming process as I then scrap off the color.  Save the paint as no paint get wasted in this part and let this dry.  This takes usually anywhere from a day to a week, depending on the  size of the canvas.  This is a 30 x 20 so it did take 3 days for it to be totally dry to rework it.  This is also on a white canvas who's sides I paint black when it is ready to hang.  

Step 1 the Composition theory

As you all can  see by my sketch that I hold no paper dear.  When an idea hits it could be on a check. With that being said let me explain the top two drawings.  I'm not sure if this is a sort of Fibonacci template or where I even first saw it, but it did  and it has proven itself to be a fundamental tool for my art.

Most of my florals are vertical, but I did include a horizontal view as this works also with any other genre of art from abstracts, landscapes and figural work.  The theory is that you stay out of the middle of the canvas.  First the canvas is divided into threes both vertically and horizontally.  This infact was the format that Ansel Adams used in his photography.  As you can see with my sketch the design is broken up into three sections both top and bottom and side to side.  The flowers themselves follow the three top triangles to allow for a pleasing visual composition.  I know it must seem laborious but you only do this a few times and you will see that your sketches begin to naturally flow in this direction.  The purpose of this is to create a painting that makes your eyes look around, not stop dead become bored and lose interest.  

Come back soon to see the beginnings of the painting and the process.

My Process to a Painting

Well here it is.  I'm a little excited and a little nervous,  I do hope you all will post comments.  Artists never quite know who's looking and how effective all their efforts are.  I spent the better part of a week and 20 hours painting to put together my process and approach to a painting.

Stay tuned for the postings. This is a quote from Tom Buechner.  I posted it as I believe all great art comes from pushing this idea until you truly express yourself.

"the idea behind the painting is the most important aspect of finding the solution to expression." Tom Buechner

It's all in the details

Good Morning all,
I have been thinking and encouraged by a really good art friend to show my process.  At this time Im just a little dense on the video aspect but I thought if I did stills and it was well received I would dig my heels in and finally do the video.  Who knows I might like it.  I will have the first posts up by Monday.  Stay tuned............... and check back

Happy Friday.

Its that time when we get pretty snow scenes

22 x 16   "Well Worn Path"

When I painted this it gave me such memories of my childhood and being off from school, playing in the snow.  Children don't mind the cold. It was a chance to play.  So painting this gives me the chance to play.

I am going to announce something big coming in February so stay tuned.......

Welcome 2015

Well here it is another year reviving up and to see what all happens.  365 days of adventure. So here is my beginning painting.

"Desire"  40 x 24