Sunday, September 17, 2006

Early Autumn

Early Autumn, 9x12, oil/linen
$375, unframed
What an absolutely magnificant day it was yesterday, perfect weather, light and color! This is such a great time of the year to be a plein air painter, you can literally watch the changes in nature day by day. It's a subtle time before the riot of color that is yet to come. This was a real challenge and I'm glad I decided to paint on a smaller size board rather than a 16x20. It was so challenging because I only began to paint after 4 o'clock and at that hour of the day the sun is sinking fast and the light and shadows changing considerably over two hours. There were many decisions to be made as I painted, whether to stick to the original plan or "chase the light", and deepen the shadows as they deepened before me. The end result is that this painting shows multiple moments in time, taking those elements that worked to harmonize the painting as the presented themselves to me in real time and combining them into a integrated whole that captured the experience of the whole afternoon. Like the cubists who portrayed multiple viewpoints at once this piece shows multiple points in time, as plein air paintings often do.
Another challenge was working with some new colors on my palette. I find it desirable to modify my palette of colors as the seasons change. So to my regulars (naples yel., hansa yel. hansa yel/or, trans. red ox., quin. red, and ult. blue) I've added mars orange, burnt sienna, and raw sienna in anticipation of all the earthy colors of fall. This creates a wonderful array of warm colors that seem to capture the season perfectly.








1 comment:

ming said...

bet you sell alot of autmn paintings... love the warmth.

only got 1 season where i come from..HOT!