Wet Paint - Twins, Red Carpet

Twins, Red Carpet, oil/panel, 18"x24"

A new motif has emerged. I walk often along this path that parallels the Delaware River. The white pine trees along the way have become my latest obsession. Trees have always been an important subject for me and I believe on many levels that they are metaphors for life. They have long histories and many stories to tell.

On this day, I responded to this thick carpet of red pine needles -- very chromatic, richly textured and peppered with scrubby green foliage and cool notes of the gravel walkway in the foreground.

As of late, I've been enjoying painting on gessoed, hardwood panels. I prefer the slick surface and it's ability to retain my initial brushstrokes of the block-in and then allowing subsequent layers of paint to be mingled or weaved layer upon layer to establish both atmosphere and objects in space.

Here I used a very soft brush to create the smooth and solid transitions in the tree trunks and what I mean by that is even tones in the paint.

Again, the color variations of warm and cools working together. Sometimes cool is an area that is just less warm. Notice the closeness of the value -- squint and you will see one shape.

Here, the scrubiness of the paint and subtle color and temperature changes dotted with the darker accents give the illusion of space.

If you look closely there are no razor sharp edges in this painting. What separates form is value, color and temperature changes.