Monday, December 23, 2013

Detail


Those paintings by artists who paint every blade of grass are often less complete than those who can depict many blades of grass by using one large well placed and well handled brush stroke. It takes very little skill to paint one blade of grass at a time. It takes a real master can create fields with just a few brush marks if they are handled just right. Look at John Singer Sargents work as an example.
The painting on the left is one of mine with very little detail but the painting was much stronger because of it.

Sunday Afternoon Painting

Sunday is a day when a few friends get together to do some plein air painting. I set up one camera to shot this short time lapse video and using only three colors on my palette plus white. Ultramarine Blue, Indian Yellow, and Alizarin Crimson. When using just three colors it was important that they were all transparent colors. If they had not been transparent the rich dark tones would not have been possible.

 

Painting at Little Big Horn

Here's an example of working outside on a day that was extremely hot and uncomfortable. I almost didn't take the time to paint but at the last moment decided to do a small piece which ended up as quite a special experience.