"Behold the Lamb (1)"

(unavailable.....6" x 12"....Water Soluble Oils on 300 lb. HP)

"Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world." This is an experimental piece to add to my collection so that I have many choices to choose from before submitting the work for an upcoming Easter exhibition. My intent was to showcase very light values against very dark ones to visually describe the Lamb of God who is also the Light of the World.

This is my fourth sky scape in recent days, but I am still not quite ready to say "yes to the piece". I am just letting you all get a close up view of my process. 

Process is always on my mind because it involves a complex strategy of coming up with a concept and actually birthing it into a piece of art. I am learning a lot about painting a sky scape. One of the main things I'm learning is to have a strong contrast between very blended ribbons of color and some that are laid down in one spot with no blending. These are also much easier to do and more convincing (at least to me) if they are painted with a palette knife. 

The other very valuable thing to learn is that this is a pathway to creating full blown abstracts without using the typical color of the sky, but rather using any number of color combinations and staying with horizontal bands as the main format. And even placing a gestural stroke of intense color in one spot can send the piece into ecstasy.

So I am now thinking about devoting an entire afternoon with papers lined up and doing one right after the other with some very good music playing. It helps if it has a lot of passion with good rhythm. What this will do, is get rid of the internal critic and soon you will develop a rhythm.

If you choose to paint on unmounted canvas or 300 lb. HP Watercolor Paper.....you will have many cropping options after the paint has dried. For instance, you can have some narrow vertical pieces or some wide, but skinny horizontals that could even be viewed as a series. 

So if you're just starting out and want to see what the paint will do and give you some experience mixing color with a limited palette, this is a wonderful place to start. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.