Still life offers a change

$40 oil on canvas, "Celery" 5x7: to purchase this painting see http://www.avonwaters.com/ and "Contact Us."

This is one of those paintings that is a break away from my usual and favorite subject, landscapes. By doing a few still lifes, it gives me an opportunity to step back and take a new look at how I paint my landscapes when I return to them.

And the still lifes also let me experiment with color combinations that I may or may not use with the landscapes later. Often, although not in this case, I will mix a color that is unique when placed against another and I can carry it over into the landscape painting.

To see more of my work see http://www.avonwaters.com/.

Adjusting colors

$200 oil on canvas, "Tributary" – to purchase one of my paintings see http://www.avonwaters.com/ and "Contact Us."

Okay, I played a cruel joke on my readers. In the last entry I said the painting was destroyed. The reality is, I wanted to show how a failure can be turned around – that is of course if you think this one is any better.

If you'll compare the two paintings, you will see I have changed the colors of the background woodlands and increased the contrast of the woodland floor and the trees. And as a result of the changes, the reflection of the stream has changed and softened.

Many times paintings don't work out as planned and I must go back into them on a different day. When that doesn't work, they get painted over and no one ever sees them – but in this case, I thought you'd enjoy seeing the process.

To see more of my work, go to http://www.avonwaters.com/

Learning from failures

Not for sale: Destroyed

Sometimes paintings just don't work out. This is one of them. In my effort to get color into my work in the dead of winter, I tried to use exaggerate color but in my effort to do so, I ended up using too much white mixed into my color. The result, a chalky mess.

Because of my working method with color, it is a delicate balance to use white mixed with color without over doing it. Color is releative. Depending on where it is placed, what color it is placed next to, it is perceived differently. I've found that what color mixture works in one painting won't work in the next if I place it next to the wrong color.

I've also found that some very bright paintings are bright because of their color relationship, but when I place them next to paintings using colors from the tube, or with paints not mixed very much, then the bright painting can appear dull. It's a very delicate balance that in this case failed.

Positive and negative space opportunities

$200 16x20 oil on canvas: "Path along a woods" To purchase this painting to Contact Us at www.avonwaters.com.

Since I like color, winter can be a difficult time. But the weather hasn't been warm enough to begin rotting the leaves on the ground. This makes them an opportunity to add color to a scene that is devoid of the usual opportunities that the other seasons bring.

This path was found along the Mississinewa River. Fishermen use it to walk along the river and then take detours to the river's edge to fish. The leaves are still orange and yellow. The defoliated trees have a blue and red cast to them and this contrasted well with the ground color and sky.

One good thing I find about winter is that it allows the trees to cast distinct long shapes across the woodland floor. This lets me work with the positive and negative spaces within the canvas – it also helps create more depth as the shadows recede they become smaller and closer together.

Go to www.avonwaters.com to see more of my work.

Palette knife creates texture in snow

$125 12x16 oil on canvas; To purchase this painting go to Contact Us at www.avonwaters.com.

"West gate" was done entirely with a palette knife. The knife gave the paint a very rich thick buttery texture. Because there is so much white in a show scene, the eye sees subtle differences as it moves up and down, piles under trees and fences – but those subtle changes don't translate well onto the canvas. To solve this problem, the pallet knife gives texture to the snow and makes it more interesting for me.

The photo shows some of the subtle color that is added to the white but not to the extent that the painting shows when viewed in person.

Painting different versions of the same scene

$40 If you wish to buy this painting please go to Contact Us at http://www.avonwaters.com/.

This 5x7 inch oil on canvas was done entirely with a pallet knife, but is the second attempt of the same scene; "Amboy Friends Church west tower." As my last entry indicated, snow is particularly challenging for me as an artist that likes color.

Often artists will do one two or more paintings of the same scene or subject. Most people are not even aware that the artist has "redone" the same subject because the pictures are not shown together like they are here in this blog. Because they are together here, and because some painters will put different versions in a single show or exhibit, the viewer gets to compare. By nature, anytime we compare two things, we tend to pick what we like the best.

But as an artist, when I do more than one picture of the same thing, it is not to "try and do better" but to try different things. In this "same subject" painting, I attempted to use only a pallet knife rather than a palette knife and brush as in the first. I also tried to play with the color more than in the first. If you compare the tree on the left in this, and the tree on the left in the previous painting, they are vary different. In the first, the brush gave me less control than the pallet knife when making the branches.

In other "same as" subjects; I have tried to do something different with color, shadow or even point of view. Because the subject has been painted once, often this frees me to concentrate on other aspects of the painting than I could when I first painted it. Because I'm familiar with the drawing, that challenge is gone as is the composition element and that is liberating – thus allowing the artist to experiment more with different elements of the art. So, for me it is never a matter of "can I do a better job" than I did on the first.

Snow: dealing with a lack of color

$70 If you wish to buy this 9x12 oil on canvas please go to contact us on my website, http://www.avonwaters.com/

Winter in the Midwest and other places where there is snow is so drab. This picture, "Amboy Friends Church West Tower" was done recently after a heavy December snow. I actually did two of these and will post the other one next.

For an artist that likes color, winter is a very challenging time for me – and snow tends to make that challenge even more exasperating because everything becomes white. This is my very first attempt at painting snow. I studied many of today's plein air painters in the Indiana Plein Air Painter's Association and saw how they avoided using a lot of pure white. Most of the canvas has blue, violet or yellow added to the white areas to create interest. White is used very sparingly in their work and in mine. I have done the same, saving the pure white highlights for the most significant impact.

For me, texture plays a vary important role in this since the color pallet is limited due to the snow. I've used a pallet knife to lather on the paint very generously. And because the pallet knife is used, I can add a color to the white and actually mix it on the canvas – thereby leaving trails of color through the stroke. Be aware that the photo of snow pictures seems to add more blue than is really there in the original and photoshop has only managed to remove some of it.

So as an artist, the whisps of color that drag through the white from the pallet knife and the occasional color from building and trees, seems to satisfy my thirst for color. But I really can't wait for spring and the return of more color options.

Symmetry Part II

$40 -- if you wish to purchase this, see my website for email information under contact us.

"Two Hot Tomatoes" is a 3x6 inch oil on canvas that uses the symmetric composition of two similar sized objects but by selecting a strong horizontal canvas, the composition becomes more interesting. Symmetry is the most difficult thing for an artist to capture and make interesting, yet as humans we are drawn to symmetrical objects and construction. We like the reflection of a row of colorful trees in the water or the entrance of a building to be in the center and similar wings going out in directions from it.

But as an artist, something as simple as the reflection of trees in the water along a river so often puts the horizon line in the center of the picture. Because the picture has borders, what is interesting in nature becomes less interesting on canvas.

Had I placed the tomatoes in the center of a traditionally shaped canvas such as a 8x10 or 16x20, the viewer's eye would move from one to the other and back. By selecting a strong horizontal canvas, I force the viewer to sweep across the images and the edges of the canvas help create visual movement that otherwise isn't there with the subject. But still, neither image is dominate and that may bother some. Yet the choice of canvas to move the eye makes it work for me – and that counts for something. As the artist, I'm betting it will work for others too – you be the judge. I look forward to your comments.