"Sitting On The Patio"

($200.00......18" x 24".....painted on a 2" depth gessobord)


There is no quote today, but I did inscribe the title of the piece into the wet oil paint. "Sitting on the Patio" is a painting of one of my favorite pots and plants on my patio. The patio is what I call the new "front porch". Not everyone has a front porch anymore, but most people do have a deck or patio where they can share conversation with family and friends. Many happy conversations have happened on my patio as well as many quiet moments of thought and reflection. This piece is larger and was created for an upcoming exhibit at Hill Country Bible Church NW called "Come Together".  Indeed, patios are a great place to come together.

I don't post many oil paintings, but I can assure you that I have been dabbling with oils for some time now and my most successful endeavors seem to be created with the palette knife. This entire piece was done alla prima with a variety of sizes and shapes of palette knives.

The same gestural textures can be seen in the background that I also create in kiln formed glass and mixed media. I used a double palette of warm and cool colors. One of the most useful things I've done is to mix all of my primary and secondary colors with the complement (one by one) and adding white and then more white to achieve a range of grays. Those paint chips have been placed on shipping tags....labeled...and hung on a ring binder to give me a ready reference until I become totally experienced with mixing the range of grays that are in the landscape or any painting really.

My inspiration has come from artists like Sandra Pratt and Rocky Hawkins. They both use a lot of palette knife techniques. You might be inspired by taking a peak at their websites. All of these same techniques can be used with acrylics. It is best to use a retarder with the acrylics to give you a longer window of working time. Open acrylics are another option for painting outdoors with this medium. The advantage, of course, in working with acrylics is that the surface can then be prepared for lettering. Other water media cannot be placed on top of oils. And there you have it. Just a few more things to think about.

Please contact me personally to inquire about this piece.