September 27, Birch Trees

Renee Magritte (Rene Magritte, Wikipedia) said, "Ceci n'est pas une pipe" (This is not a pipe). My interpretation of this famous (well, famous to artists) line tells me a painting is free to break from mere representation of a thing. You can't hold the pipe in his painting, you can't put tobacco in it and you can't smoke it.

In a painting of birch trees you can't touch the bark, pull a leaf off a branch or smell the scent of the woods. So I break free from the "thingyness" of the subject and begin to concern myself with the challenges of the paint, working through different processes, and develop one of many solutions presented to me.

All photos are Liquitex Acrylic paint shot with a Samsung Galaxy S III smartphone.

September 27, Birch Trees, 2013 (18x24)

September 26

This is a painting I began in August and has seen many changes. I started with two complimentary colors and built upon that, adding other colors in small amounts to the compliment. As the process goes I either feel the colors are working well or I begin to replace one or both compliments with a new set of compliments. My final solution became a study of the tints and shades of two compliments red/green, orange/blue.

All photos are Liquitex Acrylic paint shot with a Samsung Galaxy S III smartphone.

September 26, 2013 (18x24)

Daily Painting: September 8

I should stop calling this daily painting as I am not painting daily at this point. However I am getting more work done this month and am happy. I decided to continue working from oil sketches I did last year and the painting developed into this:

All photos are Liquitex Acrylic paint shot with a Samsung Galaxy S III smartphone.

September 8, 2013 (18x24)

When I look at this painting I see the influence of Joan Miro (Wikipedia) and Paul Klee (Wikipedia).

Daily Painting: September 4

Last year I did an oil pastel in a sketchbook that I liked so much I decided to do it in acrylic. What I liked so much about this image was it looked more like an actually landscape than most of my paintings. But I would like to take my painting in a direction that merges abstract art with figurative art.

All photos are Liquitex Acrylic paint shot with a Samsung Galaxy S III smartphone.

September 4, 2013 (18x24)

Daily Painting: September 1

I've decided to do a painting a day for the month of September. The paintings will not be named but a dated will be assigned for the day corresponding to when they were created. This first one was finished last night, September 1st. It's a simple exploration of color beginning with compliments: yellow and purple but eventually moved completely away from purple and yellow becomes a minor player against blue and orange.

All photos are Liquitex Acrylic paint shot with a Samsung Galaxy S III smartphone.

September 1, 2013 (18x24)

Even though I have no subject - no preconceived ideas - before I begin painting, when I come near the conclusion I can't help but see some sort of a landscape coming out of the image.