Seeing Red

"Matisse Reds"   24 x 16

So I love red.  Red tells so many stories.  It is about strength, power and love.
Whatever red is to you I hope that you embrace it.  I know some artist avoid
red as if it the bad child on the palette.  But truth be told when you see red on
a web site and its a painting I almost certainly guarantee that it is what you
eye sees first.  Matisse seemed to revel in red and those cool cobalt blues.
 I have enclosed two of Matisse's red paintings and the ones he's most famous for.

as always ENJOY!!!!!!!!

I can't blame the snow

Well here I am painting away wonderful flowers and I'm feeling guilty to post them as a third of the country is under way too much snow.  Then again I'm hoping this brightens someones day.

"No More Goodbyes"
36 x 30

So I'm hoping you are seeing spring through the white.

New Work so drop what you are doing and take time to smell the flowers

"Within Reach"   22 x 16

I will be announcing something new on Friday......

STAY TUNED...........

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.