“GREAT BLUE”

At last I am finally painting! “Great Blue” (oil on canvas) has been a long time in the making. The piece below is the initial painting. I love the blues in that piece but I was more interested in achieving a more natural look. I’ve done few landscapes, and my mind gets blown by all the choices of shapes, greens, lights and darks etc. Which one should I pick?? Don’t believe it if anyone tells you that painting is easy…

For this piece, in order to make the white wing fade more into the background, I had to make leaves of a similar value, not necessarily color but value. The head was too large, and the beak too obvious. This might seem like simple matters, but frankly these are the decisions that make me want to eat ice cream.

I tucked more trees in to create more interest in the background, and bring more of the orange/pink color into the whole piece. I, also, wanted to created lost/found areas like under the curve of the left wing and again further down the wing. The dark areas force the light of the curve of the wing to come forward. The final painting, I hope, has a delicacy of movement that I don’t think was in the initial one. It’s that fluidity of movement that birds have that pulls me. I hope I’ve been successful.

 

This next series  is the progression of a whimsical piece, “The Interloper.” I’m always torn between super realism, folk art and whimsy. I’m supposed to have a single look, but I can’t decide… I like them all. This piece is about a bunch of Royal Terns who notice this fellow who’s entered from the left, the uninvited Seagull. These Royal Terns I find endlessly amusing with their stocky stance, wild hair and big orange beaks. I mean…

The first four stages are laying in the various birds. The last image is the final piece. I’ve tried to keep it loose with line and shapes having more importance than definition. Again, movement is an important element here.

“The Interloper” is 12″ high x 48″ wide (oil on canvas)

Step I – step II – laying in the Royal Terns and their various reflections in the water.

The Seagull…

All the birds are in, and now I need to fill in the lights/darks and accent the lines. I really love line.

The final piece. “THE INTERLOPER” Click on the image to see it in a larger version.

 

If anyone is in the Charleston/Mt. Pleasant vicinity, please come to my Open House! Fred Hudson will be at the piano.

Open House