Years in the making

I try to paint quickly, well in truth what I really do is try to give the illusion and feeling of quick painting. In reality a hug amount of time, thought, and planning goes into each painting.  Most take between one to two weeks to complete; even then I'll sometimes adjust a painting in some minor way weeks later. It may be a complete re-toning of a major element within the painting, but more often than not it's a tiny blob of paint here or there with a small brush. Tiny changes that in truth only the artist notices but yet seem crucial to the completion of the painting.

 Rhododendron and fruit on dragon fish cloth
24X36           Acrylic on panel

You may have seen this before? It's been a while in the making. Even though it was 'finished' a number of years ago, I found myself making little adjustments every 10 months or so, and finishing it all over again. It's hard to remember all these changes, I know at one time the vase was a different color, as was the table/box the arrangement sits on. There has also been a myriad of minor adjustments to flower and foliage, each with sizable breaks in-between... Sometimes a painting just takes time to grow.

First of the 2016 paintings using 'the golden ration'

Finished the first few paintings of 2016. It's always nice to get a few under the belt.  I'm pretty sure I'm not going back to this one; but the other few I may have a few small adjustments to make. So thought I'd just post this up for now.... More later I promise.

Pears, Plums & Watermelon with Cyclamen
24X18            Acrylic on panel

I always enjoy working to this circular design, you can create a little bit of the golden ration about it with a spiral like circular edge of the table, really leading the eye around the composition. It's not overly emphasized, but there subtly. Visuals below to show what I mean. I'm not going to spend time here explaining the benefits and pitfalls of composition with 'the golden ratio'. (It would just take too long). I simply wanted to illustrate that in this case, I'd used it a little.

The golden ratio

The 'ratio' placed over artwork.

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