For those of you not afraid of color!

 Sunflowers with limes and pottery wine jug
36X24                     Acrylic on wood

 Here's a painting I've had in my studio for a few years, I decided to do some reworks and redesigns on it. I like were it ended up...

 The painting before changes.

Here's the painting, before I made the changes. I was always bothered by the expanse of wood on the table surface. The logical decision was to bring in a table cloth, and use a design within the cloth to draw your eye from the flowers down onto the table.

I also felt that overall the painting would be much improved from a balance/composition point of view with addition of a chair in the background. This then led to some other color changes. Finally a little adjustment to the flowers and the removal of the stopper on the wine jug.  Overall I'm much happier with these alterations, it really brought the painting together. The painting may be colorful, but it has a bold impact and power to it.

 Detail

...And Finally, here's a close up. I recently bought a new camera, it's able to get stunning detail, this image doesn't even begin to show the fidelity I can now capture.

Painting Calla Lillies

I do like Calla Lilies, there's something about their elegance of form, the simplicity of them.

I've been working away on lots of things, but only time to share this one with you. It took a while to come together, I really enjoyed that bold stripped cloth in the background. It's a little Zebra like in stripes, but it gives the painting so much drama!



Many more soon....

 Calla Lily and tangerines over striped drape
36X18  Acrylic on panel

A background of yellow

Here's two recent paintings; they make a great pair tonally, and of course their size and type of content. I wanted to keep similar color themes within each painting, I find the rich yellows make such a wonderful backdrop to both paintings. It creates wonderful compliments with the blues and harmonies with warm tones of orange and red.

 Pears, Plums & Watermelon with Cyclamen

24X18           Acrylic on panel

Bellflowers and pears over fish cloth in red

24X18           Acrylic on panel

I'm sure there will be more paintings coming soon with this dramatic fish designed print...

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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Painting Plums and changing cloths

Fun to be painting big again; just finished this last week. I like the tried and tested relationship of the greens with the reds and the fantastic colors in the striped tablecloth!

Plum and Tulips on striped tablecloth
36 X36     Acrylic on wood

Often times I find the trick to painting, is to keep the energetic loose feel of a painting 'alive' despite the fact that the painting may have had to undergo some redesign.  In the case of this painting I struggled with the tablecloth design. This I feel is a common struggle within still life painting, the question of how best to convey the pattern, whether to leave the design in, or omit it? Sometimes as the journey of a painting unfolds a new direction is needed, the end result should hide all of that struggle.

 in-progress

Within this painting I attempted to keep  the original material design; in the end I came to realize a simpler approach was needed. You'll notice the detail image above, on the right shows the transition between the two designs. I realized I had designed strong horizontals and verticals, so the idea came to me that using another tablecloth that included stripes could be very effective. I'm glad I did, this design leads the eye up into the subject and reinforces the edge of the table beautifully.

detail

I like the placement and perspective of this jug.

detail of final tablecloth

Compare this detail to the image further up, to illustrate how the right design element can make all the difference.

A well travelled painting!

Finished up the painting that I began in my studio, and then took to Santa Fe to paint on location for a couple of days at my gallery (Ventana Fine Art), during the Paint Out festival. I then returned once more to my studio, to put the final touches to it.  It's a well travelled painting!



When working on a painting over a long period of time it can be tough to keep the energy up, and not give the painting an over worked aesthetic.  This painting has a loose energy to it, giving the impression it was painted quickly, with passion, and in the moment. The reality, of course, is it took considerably longer. I try to keep strokes confident and carefully placed, keeping it's frenetic energetic feel; careful planning, I find is also an important factor to maintain.

Tangerines & Peonies on Poets desk
24X32                   Acrylic on panel