This painting was created with an eye towards integrating my “life painting” with a more direct way to incorporate abstraction- playing with the effects of light and color and mark making. It’s something I see in the work of artists like Andrew Wyeth- who paint from life, but the interested in abstraction is there, especially in the watercolors. Pastel is a great way to have directness of drawing and the color mixing of paint. It helped me a lot with figuring out a way to mix my “alla prima” training with the conceptual work of the MFA.
I remember grabbing my plein air easel and pastel set and heading out to paint at Mt. Storm. It’s not always easy to find the “right” thing to paint, but most times, something unusual become apparent to me. It’s the way the light comes through a grouping of leaves, or the gesture of a trees trunk that captivates me and I know what I have to paint. It’s the particular, unique, and unusual things that always kind of grip me. May, 26th, 2020