Lately, I have been embarking on a new direction. Well, sort of. It’s applying more paint to the canvas. I’ve tried before, but it didn’t stick. This time, I feel there is a new found boldness and more knowledge in my painting, making it much easier for me.
Last weekend an artist friend of mine, Christine Debrosky, came down to Phoenix. We spent Saturday going to art stores and to the galleries in Scottsdale. I have long admired some of the Russian painters. I went back several times to look at a few paintings in Gallery Russia. I loved the freshness and boldness of the paint quality as well as the color and compositions. I’ve always felt that to use thick paint well (not just for the sake of thick paint), there had to be a sureness and knowledge in how to handle the paint and colors. As I said, I tried it before, but didn’t feel that I was going in the direction that I wanted.
This time I used a different approach. I used what I would call simultaneous color (not contrast) in this painting, using like values of different colors in the same strokes. I’m not sure if there is a name for this process or not, but I think this is an appropriate term. I’ve painted some parts of my paintings like this before, but this was bolder and with more thought and care. I used both the brush and the palette knife in the painting.
This was a scene from Colorado. I took a lot of liberties from the photos, combining and composing. The main thing that I wanted to accomplish in this one was to use a lot of grays to have the light bright colors of the backlit leaves that were gently blowing in the wind.
Hope you enjoy this new direction.
Becky
beckyjoy@beckyjoy.com