Producing a New Body of Work ~ The Cumulative Effect!

It seems like just yesterday that I started my first Virginia landscape Springtime Weeping Willows.  Then came Resting By the Brook, Morning Light, followed by two small pastoral scenes, Grazing Hillside and Greener Pastures.  Most recently I started a large (30’by 40”) rolling hills painting with the Blue Ridge Mountains in the background.  When I started this series I wasn’t sure whether I would enjoy it enough to stick with it.  Sometimes I paint a subject and that one time is enough.  This time, however, I have fifteen future paintings in my head from my last trip to Lexington, Virginia and I just can’t paint fast enough. 

All of a sudden, and not really suddenly at all, I have produced a new body of work.  It’s a slow process, one painting at a time, but it feels good to see them all side by side and to feel productive.  Each painting evolved from the previous painting.  I started out using broken color (an impressionistic technique) in a tight manner with Springtime Weeping Willows.  With Resting By the Brook I decided I wanted to use the same technique but make each color application bigger and more visible from a distance.  It creates a whole different look.  I also wanted to create a tonal appearance, with a yellowish/golden hue to the sky and a landscape that was in harmony. 

Next was Morning Light which I wanted to have fun with it, making it more contemporary.  The springtime wildflowers made me think color.  As I mentioned in my Morning Light blog, I used a palette knife and created almost a mosaic pattern in the water, taking the idea of bigger more visible applications of color to the next level.

Morning Light was a large painting (30” by 40”) which made me want to do a couple of small ones next (12” by 12”).  After having gone to the palette knife and the mosaic pattern I had the desire to go back to a more realistic, traditional style (without much “broken color”).

What is exciting to me are the endless opportunities of subject matter that I enjoy painting.  Virginia is somewhat surprisingly holding my interest as a painter.  I’m hoping to turn this small body of work into a large one!  Thanks for following my journey!