Searching for a Focal Point

"Up with the Birds" watercolor

In the Beginning....

Often when I am teaching a watercolor class a wash technique I end up with a number of watercolor "backgrounds".  Often I am able to develop these demo pieces into finished paintings. The backgrounds are generally soft colors subtly blending into each other to create some type of backdrop for a landscape painting. This background was done in warm reds, purples and yellows; my intention was for the class to create a sunset type of painting. Since many were beginners and hadn't had much drawing experience I encouraged them to work with the idea of a silhouette against the sky. No details, just shape. Keep it simple.

My demo piece had the three colors pictured above blending subtly, but it needed something else to give it some interest so I dropped bits of yellow paint onto the wet paper and let it spread. After the paper was dry I added the silhouette of the land with a few stray weeds waving in the breeze. The end result is this painting below, a soft rather dreamy end of day (or is it the beginning of day?) landscape.

Focal Point?????

But I felt like it needed something else. Like maybe a clear focal point. The weeds seemed to be the focal point, but I felt that the sky provided a space to hold another shape or two-- or more  (remember, I'm working with silhouettes). So I added the outline of five birds in flight.  And then a sun or moon shape coming up (or down) over the horizon. One more layer of vegetation in the foreground created more of a sense of depth to the final piece.

Title

The title "Up With the Birds" now leaves no doubt as to the time of day and identity of the round shape on the horizon.

Loveletters to Upstate New York

Come one, come all to the reception for Loveletters to Upstate New York!

February 11, 2:00- 4:00 at the Manlius Library.

The landscape of Upstate New York has been my muse for as long as I have been a painter. The woods, water, trees and flowers have been a never-ending source of inspiration.

Now as I am getting ready to relocate to Lewes Delaware, I hope to find another source of inspiration at the seashore. But I'll never leave my Upstate New York roots behind; I'll still be spending my summers at our camp in Northern New York (aka: The North Country).

Thank you Associated Artists for giving me a chance to do a "last picture show" here in Central New York. 

I hope to see many of you at the reception!

In Celebration of the Ever Changing Color Palette of our Upstate New York Landscape.

CELEBRATING COLOR AND LIGHT

I recently had a slightly smaller version of this show on display at Auburn Unitarian Universalist Society. A couple of the pieces sold, and I've added a few more to fit the larger exhibit space at Fayetteville Library. That show will continue through the month of February.

In March a select part of this show will move to The Oaks at Menorah Park. Many of the residents at The Oaks don't get out much anymore. I hope this show will remind them of time they spent enjoying our beautiful Upstate New York Landscape.

Nearly all of my work is a celebration of color and light and landscape is my preferred subject matter.
I hope you will have a chance to see the show either in Fayetteville or at The Oaks.

ARTIST STATEMENT

TO EVERYTHING THERE IS A SEASON

Celebrating the ever changing color palette of our landscape in Upstate New York. Acrylics, watercolors and silk dyes.

If you are a painter, painting the seasons just seems like a natural thing to do in Upstate New York. Living here we are greeted with an ever-changing palette of colors as the seasons shift.

The year begins with wispy whites shimmering in the pale winter sun. Spring brings us delicate green tendrils curling up from the ground. At last! 

Summer is glorious and filled with color. Flowers, fruits, blue skies and sunny days! Ah, we wish that it could last forever! Fall is glorious too as trees show off their “Sunday best”, their color rivaled only by the brilliant orange pumpkins. 

And then the sky grows heavy and leaden, and the bare silhouettes of trees settle in for their long winter nap. 

And the cycle begins again.