This floral still life of orchids and lemons was based on a concept of shimmering light. I wanted to portray the chief player, the flower on the right as I saw it, shimmering with light. The rest of the objects - the lemons and green glass jar are merely supporting cast. There's lots of beautiful brush work and lush paint. See the detail of the main player below.
About 8th in a series of concept paintings, this beautiful 9" x 12" piece has a great glow to it. The light pools around the fruit and bounces off of the Buddha, bringing to the painting a feeling as if the fruit is being bathed in a glow from the icon. The reflections are so bright, they bounce off the polished table below. Lots of lush paint and brushwork in this piece.
My scanner is back on line, so depending on your monitor, it should read right. Enjoy.
This 9" x 12" Painting of a Ginger Jar with flowers and grapes is perhaps the 8th in a collection of new paintings done within the framework of a concept. The concept here was, of course, color. The Jar itself has very little color as it's background but has wonderful color and detail in its decoration. I placed a pink cloth to accent the peacock on the jar and then placed some flower in the jar itself. The challenge here was to keep the jar as a central player while not losing it to the background in the painting which is nearly the same color as the background of the jar. While it appears at first that there is an outline on the left hand side of the jar, this is only a branch which is part of the jar decoration. If you look closely (picture allowing), you'll see that the edge of the jar actually extends beyond this branch and is lost to the shadows beyond. This is more evident on the painting when viewing it in person.
"Chinese Vase with Dried Roses"
SOLD
This 11" x 14" painting of a Chinese vase with dried roses is the seventh in a series of concept paintings that represent a new body of work. There is a lot going on in this painting that belies it's simplicity. The brushwork is expressive and the paint layer generous. While the background is fairly shallow, there is a quality of airiness to it. I'm still working with a digital camera here and so the values on the front egg do not read exactly correct. It is a little darker than the one behind it so that it provides the first and only object in the foreground on which the light first breaks, leading you to the second which is in full more intense light.
This 12" x 16" Oil was yet another painting done on the basis of a concept. The concept here was space. I wanted to portray an object - in this case a flower, occupying space while a the same time appearing to float in that space. There is a lush impasto of paint on the flower bringing it a three dimensional sculpted look while the background remains light and airy. There is nothing like viewing a painting in person and as always this photo falls short of the painting.
I've started the bidding at $49.00 with the view that if it doesn't sell - it's one more for my show in March. Enjoy!
Sixth in a series of paintings done with a concept as a framework, "Peonies" is a painting about color. Here I've played the pink color of the peonies against a somewhat low key greenish umber. The two complimentary colors work together to create excitement. The gold cloth has enough sienna in it to pull it into the analogous range. More Yellow and it would be a discord. While the vase is essentially colorless, being of reflective material, it brings together all the other colors in the painting to a harmonious whole. The peonies are painted with a generous application of paint as is the gold cloth. Enough color theory. Enjoy!
This 9" x 12" painting is the fifth in a series of concept paintings. The concept here is contrast. The contrast is through value (dark/light) rather than color. The small dark plums against the white cloth contrast with the tall coffee pot which is also brightly lit. While there are flowers present in the composition, they play a minor if supportive role to the main members of the cast - the pot and plums. The slightly blue cast in the background provides air and depth to the composition. It's repeated in the cloth as well as on the plums giving the work a sense of color harmony.
While painting with a concept is not entrely new to me, by doing a full series involving concepts I am beginning to appreciate it's merits. If I manage to keep the concept steady in my mind, then it becomes clearer to me what needs to be done within this framework to serve the painting. Anything that does not serve the concept, is peripheral and should either be played down or eliminated entirely.
"In the Light"
SOLD
This 9" x 12" is the fourth in a series of concept paintings. The concept here was massed light. I wanted to portray the grapes as highly lit without losing sight of the other objects in the set up. The trick was to keep the overall impression of light but not allow the grapes to become flat. The light actually comes from high above and slightly to the left. It moves only gradually across the picture plane falling dramatically on the grapes. This was a challenging painting and I'll probably do a few more in this series with a similar concept.
This 9" x 12" painting of red roses is the third in my series of concept paintings. The concept here was color. The red roses are set against a nearly colorless background with only a hint of greenish umber to set them off. The focus of the painting is the rose lying on the table. Everything in the painting is orchestrated to bring this rose into focus. It has the hardest lines and the greatest contrast. It also has the boldest color. The light in picture frame illuminates it. Notice how the dark glass olive oil jar behind the rose loses its edges in the shadows. This is one of the hall marks of Chiaroscuro (light and shadow) painting. The vase and the highlighted rose are painted very thickly. Much of the painting has a generous paint layer but if you look closely, you can see the paint strokes on those two subjects.
This 9" x 12" painting of a red rose and peony sitting in a silver tea pot is the second in a series of paintngs done involving a concept. The concept here is color. The theme is romance, which coincidentally, is also the title of the painting. I wanted to portray the emotional aspects of color against a somewhat colorless background. Romance is depicted by the red rose, red being desire, which, like romance sometimes does, has lost its bloom but not its color. The diagonal composition creates tension. All romance hold a degree of tension. This is offset by the soothing tones of the pink and the softened reflections of the teapot. Much as the object of our desire reflects back to us, qualities which we ourselves posess or wish to posess - but often through a haze of emotion. The background is painted thinly while the peony has an almost sculptural quality due to its heavier paint layer.There is a lot of "air" and atmosphere in this painting.
I'm still working with a digital camer instead of my usual scanner. Hence, there are highlights which do not show up well here. I should be back to normal (depending on the graces of the computer gurus) by Thursday or Friday. So if I get things rolling again, I'll repost the picture.
