Shadows and Shape as inspiration

Shadows and shapes inspire
"Barn on curve" -- $165; if you wish to purchase this painting, see http://www.avonwaters.com/ contact us.

This 12x16 oil on canvas is a study I've wanted to start for a while – barns. Indiana and the Midwest are full of barns of all different shapes and sizes. I've been doing woodlands and still am inspired the shapes created by the shadows cast by the tree trunks and the shapes of intersecting planes where the ground meets the woods or the sky meets the tops of trees.

But when I saw the interesting shadow cast by the overhang of the roof on this barn, I had to try and do something. At one point I had ¾ of the barn on the canvas and wiped it off. By zooming my point of view in closer and letting the barn take up the right third of the canvas, I felt the shape of the barn then became a kind of visual anagram to the shadow and the negative space the barn created against the trees and sliver of forground.

I will be in the woods most of the summer but I'm sure I'll revisit structures more this year if I find the shadows that inspire.

Every painting experiments with something

"The greening of spring" -- $165 To purchase this painting, go to http://www.avonwaters.com/ contact us.

This 12x16 oil plein air on canvas was inspired by one of the few warm days on a weekend walk to the local state recreation area and reservoir.

It is my first landscape since returning from Bogotá, Colombia and it was inspired by the contrast of the light and shadows on the bright green grass. Seems like in the spring, the grass has a very unique green. Even the green in the lawns is never the same after the grass has been cut the first time and that is what I wanted to try to capture here.

For me, what keeps me painting are the problems each painting presents and the little experiments I can do in them. This one had more experiments than I normally try. Often, if I experiment too much, and things don't go well, disaster strikes -- I got lucky this time.

I also wanted to continue trying to translate the bright abstract colors that I do in my 20x24 and larger pieces, into the smaller canvases – I think I'm making the transition. Up until now, they have only had hints at the expressionist and abstractness that I seek.

The thick impasto paint is also an attempt to carry through with ideas I have about breaking up broad areas with interesting elements. I find if I focus on the spaces between the objects of interest, the painting is more interesting – it's the negative space that creates the interest for the objects.

Brush work

"Clouds Marching," 22x36 oil on canvas -- $600
This is a little more yellow and orange than the painting really is. This became a study of not only clouds but on how I used my smaller brushes on large paintings. Up until now, I had used small brushes sparingly and concentrated on using large brushes and contrasted the layers of paint so the large strokes showed.

Here, I wanted to try to duplicate to a small extent what I have been doing on smaller canvases using heavy paint and the palette knife. By doing so, I could add more interest in the broad areas of color that until now had been much smoother.

I accomplished this in the clouds by loading a small brush and dragging it almost parallel across the canvas instead of using it as one might use a paintbrush, perpendicular.