Today’s oil painting class was at a Audubon Coastal Reserve. The assignment–no brushes! This time we were asked to paint using only thin pieces of cardboard and/or a palette knife. It was frustrating at times but once I got into the groove of it, it felt more like icing a cake with a thick gooey delicious frosting [and I looooove frosting.]

It was interesting to let go of detail and cover large areas of the canvas at a time, letting the colors meld which each other and form loose textures. This became about the paint itself and less about the subject matter.

The paint was so thick that looking closely at the painting felt like looking at an abstraction. When you step back, the painting takes it’s shape and the tones come together to form the image.

Here is a detail of the thick paint which will probably take a few weeks to dry completely:

I  thought I was going to have to move to Tahiti to use the same types of colors that Gaugin was using or  camp out in Provence to replicate Matisse’s palette.

Instead, my amazing painting teacher, Dean Fisher, was giving a color demo and mentioned that one artist he knew took earth tones entirely out of his palette.

Somehow this concept was completely foreign to me, which is strange because when I paint with acrylics or gouache, there is almost never an earth tone in sight.

I was trained in traditional plein air painting in Provence with a very earthy palette including raw umber, burnt sienna and yellow ochre. While these colors have worked well for me in the past, they were no longer resonating with my need for vibrant color. I was feeling like everything was becoming very brown and blue.

Without earth tones I was forced to rely on creating my own browns which became a mixture of ultramarine and alizarin crimson with the teeniest dab of cadmium yellow or veridian. Shadows were violet, sun spots were pale yellow and pinks at long last crept onto my canvas.

Now that I have a new ‘vocabulary’ of color, I can’t wait to get onto the next painting to see what happens next.

A selection of my artwork will be exhibited from May 6th through May 31st at The Little Shop Around the Corner for Arts to the Avenue, a spring festival of the arts in downtown Greenwich. This event invites selected local artists to showcase and sell their work in storefronts along and near Greenwich Avenue. There will be a reception at the shop on opening night, as well as all over Greenwich Avenue and nearby streets. It’s a great event with music, entertainment, food and art.

Opening Night Festivities
Little Shop Around the Corner
71 Church Street, Greenwich CT
Thursday, May 6, 5:30 – 8:30pm

I also have a collection of work at Blueberry Music and Art House at 135 Mason Street, Greewich, CT and a few other pieces will be shown at Towne Cleaners on 43 William Street, Greenwich CT.

All work is for sale and will be up through May 31st.

Here’s just a quick shot of his head. Working on finalizing the wings. I wasn’t sure how to progress so I took some photos and am going to try some options in Photoshop before I go back to painting it. In the meantime, here is his happy beak:

I’m working on painting this 3ft x 4ft version of my flying swan drawing. A lot of work needs to go into the wings but I am liking the simplicity of the layout. It’s hard to tell in the blurry iPhone shot but a very peaceful smile is evolving…