Blue Green Yellow

I've always been intrigued by Monet's series of the pond at Giverny. The complexity of the composition and depth of color suggest that rendering the same scene repeatedly did not keep Monet from having a fresh perspective each time.


Reflections is an abstract that started out without any objective image in mind. As I laid the layers of color, the image that began to emerge reminded me of Monet's combination of blues, greens and yellows to achieve a harmonious picture. The canvas for this piece was toned with red gesso to provide warmth to the scene.


Reflections, acrylic on canvas, 16"x20", $150.00

Lilies in Watercolor Pencil

Claude Monet painted many scenes of water lillies each one as enjoyable as the other, but the most impressive one -- not least because of its size -- is the one at the Museum of Modern Art in New York city. Reflections of Clouds on the Water Lily Pond is a triptych measuring approximately 6ft x 42ft. The complexity of composition and the depth of color are absolutely astounding. Many hours of study will continue to reveal intricate detail and the layering of transparent color indicating what effort went into creating this piece.

Artists have ever since replicated water lily paintings partly in a genuine desire to understand the masterful techniques of Monet but also because lilies are just fun to paint. Although I have done a water lily acrylic painting before, this time I tried it with watercolor pencil. Not having worked with this medium very much before, I am quite pleased with how the painting came out. Though I softened out some of the pencil marks and hard edges with a wet brush, most of them were left in to let the “artistic look” remain!

Sunshine on Water Lilles, Watercolor pencil on 140lb paper, 4’x6’, $25 (unframed)

Forest Light

It has been a busy few weeks (including being sick, the holidays, year-end catch-up at work, etc) and only in the past couple of days have I been able to get back to the easel. As a warm-up to a few days of concentrated painting. I decided to do a study that began with big masses of color from which I have tried to draw out complex forms that seem to represent a forest view.

Strong backlighting as a technique is at once easy and difficult for me. Easy because it allows drawing out color and form to create striking pictures. At the same time, it can be quite difficult to avoid the foreground elements taking on a 'cut-out' appearance. In Forest Light, I used a background toned with light pthalo green in gesso. Once this was dry, I placed the big masses of color leaving the focal point (the light source) untouched. The rest was a process of using brushstrokes with several shades of the major colors to create texture. The same colors with a touch of white were used to create the merest suggestion of tree trunks. Personally, I think the tree trunks truly give form to this painting. Without them, it might just be an interesting abstract.

Forest Light, Acrylic on canvas board, 5"x7", $30 (unframed)

Minimal brushstrokes painting style

An exercise I have found quite useful in developing a looser style of painting is to do a painting with the fewest strokes possible. This requires minimal working of paint on the surface leading to a freshness of color that can be easily destroyed in just a few more strokes.

In Reflections, I have used a rather common scene of trees reflected in the water to demonstrate a minimal brushstrokes approach. The palette is restricted (ultramarine blue, sap green, cadmium yellow and titanium white) and I used the biggest brush I could force myself to pick! After all, this is a small canvas and the temptation was to reach for a small brush. The bigger brush allowed for the canvas to be covered quickly and with the self-imposed limit on brushstrokes, there was no choice but to leave the paint alone after it was down on the canvas.

Reflections, Acrylic on canvas board, 5”X7” (Not for sale)