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Tag Archives: oil painting

A glimmer of light

27 Wednesday Jan 2021

Posted by pat in Art, paintings, sketching

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landscape, Mason Neck VA State Park, oil painting, wetlands

2020 was a very long year.  Pandemic and politics has been more than difficult.  My art saves me. It’s time to move on.

I have returned again to Mason Neck Virginia State Park for inspiration. Based on a photo I took last December on the edge of the wetlands, the light finally breaks through the tangled, muted winter tones.

I debated whether this was more of a challenge than I wanted right now, but the allure of the mysterious dark vs redemptive light was a compelling challenge.  Just what I needed right now.

It’s always when I get to the middle part of a picture that it is the most daunting.  You can’t really see the big picture at this point.  It’s really a matter of where the paint takes you. I focus on small sections and worry about bringing it all together later in the process. Hopefully with a strong base framework, this will work out.

And then finally you make real progress, and it all starts making sense.  You can see where to go and how to bring it all together and find a direction.  Patience. Not my strongest virtue but it does serve me well on these complicated pieces.

Finally the beauty comes breaking through the tangled confusion. A few more corrections and attention to details… like making the center rear of the dark waters more defined to pull your eye back in to the depth of these dense woods.

Finally, it’s there. Like life, art is a process of searching for the best outcome.

Wetlands, In To The Light, oil, 40 x 30″

More Patterns

21 Tuesday Aug 2018

Posted by pat in Art, paintings, sketching, Uncategorized

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coastal paintings, oil painting, Portugal, waves

When a client loves your work, but it doesn’t quite fit their space, consignment work is often a solution.  I was nervous about this type of work when I first started painting full-time and had a few requests.

But then, I realized in my decades as a creative director for my own graphic design firm in Washington D.C., interpreting a client’s wishes with beautiful color and design had been the way I made a living for many years.

The only difference in fine art, was that the question it had to answer was “will it fit in with my aesthetic lifestyle”.  “Will it touch the new patron emotionally with color, content and design” is common in both commercial art and fine art. In my design business I often, after a few conversations, had to figure out a way to solve the problem in a way that I loved, but also pleased the client. Art commissions work the same way.

Patterns II started with the client loving a piece they had seen in one of my great galleries that represents me, Gallery 37, in Milford DE.  Having seen one of my wave paintings and loving the style and color patterns, they wanted something larger for their home.  After some back and forth meaningful dialogue, I realized it was the color palette, movement, serenity and the rock formation that had intrigued them in the smaller painting they had seen which was based on a seaside scene in Portugal I had photographed years earlier.

I found it was a joy re-visiting a painting that brought back memories of the trip along the Portuguese coast and a unique photo session for the original painting.  As I was working on a new interpretation, I thought of Monet and his Rouen Cathedral and haystack paintings…subjects he returned to again and again.

I was happy with the results, as was the client. There is a satisfaction not just in the physical painting, but also in interpreting the clients dreams of a piece of art they will live with and love for a long time.

Patterns II, 48 x 36″, oil

Hidden Away

15 Saturday Jul 2017

Posted by pat in Art, Bath, England, paintings, sketching, Travel

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Castle Combe, oil painting

My newest painting “Behind The Hedge” came about a few seasons after I visited a charming village near Bath, England, called Castle Comb. This often happens.  I will re-visit images from past travels.  Certain ones always seem to leap out again and again, and finally I find the time to paint them.

A special place stays amazingly fresh in my memory. This particular morning, after a stroll through the idyllic village, I walked past a hedge that was still changing color in early November.  The colors, the hidden cottage and the water rushing nearby all made for a very fairytale like scene. It was one of many hidden gems throughout the small historic village that seems to have escaped changing times.

It took me a few years, but I have re-visited the images of Castle Combe in the heat of a Washington DC summer, and can almost feel the cool, damp air and smell the fire smoke coming from chimneys.

I have been thinking more and more recently of re-visiting some of these English landscapes that I love.

They are so joyfully simple and beautiful. And the foliage and trees, especially for this late fall visit, offer an incredible palette of soothing color.

A magical escape.

“Behind the Hedge”, 14 x 11″, oil on linen

Brown and White

17 Wednesday Jun 2015

Posted by pat in Art, Art Museums & Exhibitions, paintings, sketching, Uncategorized

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Hirshhorn Museum, Janine Antoni, Lick and Lather, oil painting, sculpture, Washington DC

I am never sure what will be the subject of my next painting.  Sometimes I have a few images taped on my wall that I think may be possibilities.

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But until I strip the wrapping off a new canvas, I am never really sure what my next painting might be. These photos are from the gardens surrounding the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington DC.

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The inspiration for “Brown and White”  came from this same visit to the Hirshhorn this past March, but from inside the galleries.

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I hadn’t been to this museum in over a decade and had forgotten how much great sculpture there was.

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When I came across “Lick & Lather” (1993-94), a twin piece by Bahamian sculptor Janine Antoni, I was fascinated.  The brown bust is made from chocolate, and Antoni, known also as a performance artist, cast the piece and then licked the details and refinements in to the chocolate self-portrait.

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For “lather”,  she cast herself in soap, and then actually submerged the bust in a tub of water with herself and lathered the details in to shape.  Fascinating.

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When I saw the two pieces I immediately went to the wall to the left to read about the work.  Following me, a well dressed middle-aged black gentleman did the same thing, trying to identify what the pieces were all about. Part of the explanation for the pieces talks about our love-hate relationship with physical appearance.

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Several weeks later, the riots broke out in Baltimore over the death of a young black man while in police custody. It was one of several incidents that had been very troubling this year involving police misconduct against black individuals. I started thinking about the issue of race in this country, something that I have pondered more and more often in the last decade.  Having lived in the Caribbean in a West Indian society had made me even more conscious of the differences and challenges of race in our country.

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And of course, now that I live in the southern part of the United States where the issue of race is never far from the surface, I have pondered it even more.

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All of a sudden, the photo I had taken back in March 2015 at the Hirrshorn had a new impact for me.

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I chose it as reference to do “Brown and White” as my next painting. The color palate and simplicity of composition spoke to me as strongly as the underlying message. It was March when I saw the museum reference…the world was still brown and white, struggling to come out of winter in Washington.

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Somehow, everything just seemed to be obvious for the painting.

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“Brown and White”, 30 x 24″, oil on linen.

Urban Scene

23 Sunday Nov 2014

Posted by pat in Art, Art Museums & Exhibitions, paintings, sketching, Uncategorized

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Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Gustave Caillebotte, oil painting, Paris Street;Rainy Day

When I first entered this particular gallery at the Art Institute of Chicago, the large painting across from the entrance made me smile. And then I sat down on the bench across from it to contemplate the gorgeous urban scene. The rainy day vista was a snapshot of a Paris long gone. And it was beautiful.

Image 1The museum had just finished a major restoration and cleaning of Paris Street; Rainy Day by the French artist Gustave Caillebotte. One of Caillebotte’s best known works, the 1877 painting depicts what was then known as Carrefour de Moscou, a road east of the Gare Saint-Lazare in north Paris, now called Place de Dublin.

Image 13When you first walk in to the room, the painting immediately grabs your attention.  The blue-gray walls push it off the wall, and you feel like you could actually enter the boulevard itself with madam and monsieur.

I used a lavender pink underlay to set the cool, soothing tones of the rainy streets before putting the strong, deeper blue layer on top.

IMG_1604I was afraid that when I put the actual blue-gray color of the gallery walls in, it would overwhelm the painting and the figures.

Image 1But, as is the case in the actual room, it works. And the cool underlying tones do push  through and the blue on the walls draws out the figures and their umbrellas in the painting.

Image 19I sat across from this picture for a long time, watching the people come into the room.  Like me, they were immediately snapped to attention by the charismatic figures on the Parisian street.

I loved these two women looking at the work, possibly a mother and daughter.  One is lining up her photos, while the other leans in to stare at the painting.

Image 2Their detachment from each other mirrors the isolation of the figures on the Paris street.  They seem to be together, and yet each is in their own world.

Maybe things have not changed so much.

“Urban Scene” oil on linen, 30 x 24″

Watching

10 Monday Nov 2014

Posted by pat in Art, Art Museums & Exhibitions, paintings, sketching, Uncategorized

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Art Institute Chicago, Munch, oil painting, pastel, The Girl By the Window

There is something about the way people view art in museum galleries that fascinates me.  Each person has their own way of circling and then approaching a piece. Some gaze, some study with great intensity. What are they trying to see? The content, the technique…?

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Some people dash by, and take a quick pic on their phone.  But others linger, like this couple who put their heads together and peered at this mesmerizing Edvard Munch pastel “The Girl by the Window” (1893) at the Art Institute Chicago for many long moments.

Image 14Munch’s piece is special.  The young woman in the painting is looking out her window. We are not sure at what but it is mysterious and hidden by the night.  Obscured by the art lovers is a dark shape which could be a chair, or another person looking at the girl in the lower right hand corner of Munch’s painting.

ImageOur viewers have taken its place to add to the complexity of watching going on. It is a piece that is many layered and takes a long time to view and try to figure out the whole scenario.  Our couple is trying.

“Watched”, oil on linen, 14 x 11″

Floating

13 Thursday Mar 2014

Posted by pat in Art, Art Museums & Exhibitions, paintings, sketching, Uncategorized

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art studio, cut outs, Henri Matisse, oil painting, Paris, Polynesia, The Centre Pompidou

And finally, Floating. I have always loved Henry Matisse’s cut outs that the artist did in the last years of his life.  When I saw these two Polynesia works at The Centre Pompidou in Paris, and the three figures sitting in front of them literally being drawn into the floating images…I was there.

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Sometimes one the most difficult parts of a painting is deciding what to paint.

Image 3I often take many, many photographs and tape them to my studio wall, hoping that something will jump out at me.

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This is after hours of playing with the images. Re-cropping. Adding or subtracting and re-adding figures. Deciding which color palette fits the mood of the scene. Shadows. Light and dark.

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Then, finally, once it is sketched on the canvas, deciding on the ground color that will set the tone for future layers of paint.

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And it is always at this middle stage of the painting that I wonder if it was really the right decision.

I recently was reading an art tutorial blog and the artist mentioned this middle period of horror when you think all the hours you have put in are for naught! I thought it was just me that had to force myself to work through this phase. Obviously it is a common issue.

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But finally I come out on the other side, and I am happy.  It’s when I breathe that final light into the canvas that the image lets itself be born.

I don’t stop working on a painting as readily as I once used to.  If I come back the next morning and some area just doesn’t seem quite right, I work with it.  And sometimes it might get worse before it gets better. It takes immense concentration, patience (not my strongest virtue) and focus.

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But experience has taught me it is worth the frustration.  Finally, one morning, I come back in to the studio and just breathe a deep sigh of satisfaction and relief.  The painting is finally alive. And finished.

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All photos and images by me.

Spring Morning: The Met

08 Saturday Mar 2014

Posted by pat in Art, Art Museums & Exhibitions, paintings, sketching, Uncategorized

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Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, oil painting

The second in a series of gallery paintings I worked on this winter is a 30 x 24″ oil called Spring Morning. In many ways it was the most complicated of the three.  Dealing with architectural elements is always a challenge for me, and this scene was no exception. But the lobby of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City is magnificent, and worth the effort.

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I try to work out problem areas early, before I put paint to canvas.  Sometimes the drawing is one of the most difficult phases, especially in these with multiple perspectives and an overhead viewpoint.

Image 2Notice in the upper left hand corner where I realized in time that my floor tiles were out of line.

Image 6I didn’t notice an issue with the center podium under the flowers until later in the process.

ImageThe proportion and scale were slightly off.  Still easily fixable at this point.  One of the hardest lessons to learn is to look carefully, then look again.  A lot of time I find a tea break and coming back with a fresh eye helps to see issues.

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Often I photograph the work in progress (therefore all these lovely progression photos).  When I put the image up on my computer screen I often spot something that I might not notice staring constantly at the actual canvas.  Rather like a fresh pair of eyes on a new point of view.

Image 3Sometimes I look at a black & white version of it on the computer to check my contrast and shadows.  It all helps.

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And finally comes my favorite part…adding detail and breathing life in to the work.  I work on mood and shadows, depth and atmosphere.  On this piece I actually ran a glaze with a golden hue over the canvas to soften and unite the many parts near the final phase. Each day it progressed in the rich layers of transparent color and small detailed highlights.

Until, as in this case, the soft light streaming through the doors adds a glow to the entire scene.

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All photos and images by me.

 

 

 

 

Home Sweet Studio

05 Sunday Feb 2012

Posted by pat in Art, paintings, Uncategorized

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art, bird's nest, oil painting

Back in the studio. photo by me

In the middle of a painting, it's good to be back to the studio. Photo by me

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is so good to be back in the studio again, especially when a painting I started before escaping for a weeks holiday looked just as good to me now as I remembered.

It is always enlightening to work on a piece, and then remove yourself totally from it for a time…sometimes overnight, but a week is even more telling.  It just helps to look at it fresh.

Luckily with this painting of the winter garden bird’s nest I had started the week before, it looks just as interesting to me now as when I left it mid-stroke. It should be a fun week getting back in to it.

 

 

 

 

 

The art of making art

21 Saturday Jan 2012

Posted by pat in Art, England, paintings, Uncategorized

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art, art studio, Inspiration, oil painting

I spent the week in my studio trying to explore a new direction in my painting, and it was a struggle. But finally I felt I had some success, and was happy with the new results.

The studio, my photo, my painting

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the questions I’m often asked is “Where do you get your inspiration? How do you decide what to paint?”

I can’t really explain it.  I know I have a particular stroke and rhythm to my painting, and it seems to work well with the distinct rhythms of the natural world. I am always trying to interpret that flow and change of nature in my work. And I also love color.

But it can also come from a group of people engaged in conversation or an interaction of many individuals. I like to tell a story, or create a memory as I play with color and texture. Sometimes I’ll be out and a scene or visual will intrigue me and I want to explore it in art. I honestly am never quite sure where it will come from, and often I am thunderstruck.

Inspiration on my studio wall. Photos by me

I took a photo of this birds nest showing the wear of time outside my studio. I think there is art here somewhere.

But sometimes when I am trying to work out a new technique or direction, I look to other artists. Throughout the history of art, if you look at photos of artists’ studios, you will very often see images of other art on the wall, or laying on a table.  Think of Van Gogh with Japanese prints. Or Degas with the Rembrandt etchings.

So I thought it might be interesting to look at what was open on my studio table as I struggled with this new painting.

From an art magazine, and an architectural page.

Joan Mitchell is a constant companion in my studio. The freedom of movement in her strokes has always inspired me.

One of my favorite artists, for his layering and interesting use of color, is Peter Doig. Sometimes I'll take color inspiration from another painting or source, but this was just a happy accident.

This particular painting started in a totally different direction and although I thought I knew where I wanted to go with it, it just wasn’t working.  So I kept layering and changing and at times I thought it was trash.  But somehow it morphed into something I loved, and now I have a whole series in my head to work on.

This started in a very different way.

This is fairly normal for me. The rich color underneath is hidden in layers of strokes.

A lot of the original color disappeared under new layers.

And then some of it went back in. This can go on for days. With much angst.

And then finally a breakthrough. Somehow I got so frustrated with the earlier direction, I painted these large bands of blue over it. Then I started adding strokes over it. The rhythm of the woods came in clear view.

Again, when I look around my studio as I get stuck, there are things that just jog something in my brain and I go back to work.

On my wall, a favorite David Hockney tear sheet from an art magazine.

A couple of postcards on my wall, a reminder of my visit to the Cy Twombly exhibit at the Tate Modern in London.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But somehow, it all goes in and gets mixed around, and in the end I hope it is something that is very personal and truly original.

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