I have been painting mostly small pieces, I guess they can be called studies. At the gallery request I am making an effort to paint larger. This piece is 24x30"...a huge expanse of canvas for someone used to paint 12x16" and smaller. A scary espanse of canvas to tell you the truth, very intimidating. How to fill this space without going too "detaily" and without making a mess of colors and shapes? First, use a large brush I told myself. Second take care of the composition, the negative spaces, the contrast. Start sketchy at first ( still talking to myself here) and don't worry, it's only paint. Then I decided that the most important thing was to paint a small version of it, a study. Of course this is nothing new. Most artists paint studies of their larger work, but for me , an "alla prima" painter, this was a novel experience. So I decided to paint trees. Because I love trees I have hundreds of reference images. Tuscan olive trees and cypresses, orange and lemon trees, Sicilian palms. I could choose from apple trees in bloom, giant oaks, towering hemlocks, chestnut trees...I decided for Tuscan Olive trees for the way they are pruned. Tall and open in the middle, with light showing through their branches so the sky color would be mix with the color of the foliage. Of course it also needed a pathway and the long shadows of a late summer day. So I have been working off and on at this painting for over a week and then it sat almost finished for another week. I kept looking at it not very convinced it was finished. I am a deadline addict ( the gallery was waiting for this painting) and it takes fire under my you know what for me to take decisive action. The painting was not done, it needed more work, more strokes, more contrast, more complexity. The day before my appointment with the gallery I took it off the wall and went at it furiously for hours. It worked. I was satisfied with it. It was finished. Here it is.
Sold October 2007 at Buckland Southerst Gallery, West Vancouver.
