"A Textured Life"

($40.00.....6" x 6"....Water Soluble Oils on Gessobord)

"A textured life is always abundant." We all know people who do a lot and think deeply about things, but we may also know those who just float through the day. The life that is textured does meaningful things, gives to others, and thinks deeply about things. That's abundance.

I must say that the hill country landscape has a lot of muted color. It is great fun to try to make it interesting. I think I'm officially addicted to this whole thing! Mixing the colors is a great skill to have for anyone and even though I don't always hit it exactly right, the abstracted landscape is now my passion.

Yesterday, I did mention the importance of diagonals as a key ingredient to bringing energy to a painting. I did take a few liberties to achieve that in today's piece by slightly altering the division between the rock bluff and the ground. There are also a few boulders that were positioned on a diagonal. Tree limbs also help to achieve the same goal.

Try an experiment of looking at artwork and picking out your favorites. Are there any diagonals in the piece? As you begin to search for them in other artist's work, you will notice how it's done and what energy it brings to the work.

Thinking about placing a few of your brush strokes or palette knife strokes on a diagonal is also a good way to enliven the piece. I even switched my lettering to a Mitchell #6 nib and wrote gesturally with some of the strokes going at an angle which also seems to fit better with the piece than writing in script. So you will probably not see any more script in these works and that was my big "take away" from today's work. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about. 

Please contact me personally to inquire about this piece.