"Sitting Pretty"

($50.00......6" x 6".....Water Soluble Oils on Gessobord)

"Sitting pretty is all about placement." This painting was inspired by a reference photo I took in Silverado, Co. This beautiful piece of pottery was on the street sitting on a rock post with aspen leaves hanging down. It was a moment of noticing something beautiful in an unexpected place. It is true in life and in art.  It's all about placing someone or some thing in the right environment.

If anyone is not convinced that working from a limited palette is the best way to paint, I am here to try to convince you. You will never need to worry about your paintings being harmonious if you learn to do this and if you leave your tubes of Raw Umber, Black, Dioxazine Purple, Green Gold, etc. in the drawer. All of these colors can be mixed by using a double palette of primaries plus white.

I am also becoming more and more convinced that even abstract and mixed media artists should also set up a palette just as though you were painting an impressionistic or extremely realistic scene. You will learn more about color by doing this than any other way. And if you practice painting something everyday, you will learn this much more rapidly and soon you will be able to mix and match color in your sleep. 

Just to take it one step further, try painting a piece of fruit, a flower, or basically any single object and count your palette knife or brush strokes, changing the color slightly with each stroke. This is a great exercise in learning how to change values gradually, knock down the intensity by adding white or a bit of the complementary color, as well as noticing the subtle value shifts in any reference photo or real life set up. 

This is a skill that requires constant practice, but the reward is the ability to see values like you've never seen them before. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

Please contact me personally to inquire about this piece.