I SAW LOTS OF BABY PICTURES on social media yesterday for Father’s Day. It got me thinking about my paintings and their baby pictures.
Right now I’ve got my new series of paintings in the Riverdale ArtWalk. I’ve got shots of them from the front, from the side, hanging on a fence, hanging on a wall, details. But I thought maybe you’d find it interesting to see photos showing the evolution of one particular painting in that series.
Some say you shouldn’t reveal your painting secrets, but looking at these photos doesn’t make the process any less mysterious to me!
I’m going to focus on one painting, This funny cascade, which is a 24×24 inch square. It was the key to this series, and I had photos of it at every stage.
Beginning
I started these paintings with an intention to have a cooler palette, but to bring in some warm colours. I even wrote a blog post about it and made a short video showing me painting the very first layers. (Cascade is lower right)
Warming up
I brought warm pinks, tangerine, and some more saturated blues. Hmmm. No idea where this is going, a bit messy, with a few possibilities starting to show, but there’s no real direction. (Cascade is lower left, and turned on its side)
Layering
I brought blues back in to cover up a lot of the soft red. At this point it’s starting to feel like a painting. The texture is really interesting and I like the transitions from red-orange into blue. In the past I might have been satisfied with this, but I wasn’t. It was lacking something. Maybe it needed some darks? I wasn’t sure.
The zone
What! This happened in one longer painting session. All I can tell you is that I got into the zone—you know exactly what to do, time slows down a bit and everything seems inevitable. There’s some standing back and reflecting, but it isn’t a thinking event. The brain is being discerning, but very quickly, and the body and heart feel very sure.
Hit pause
After the excitement and shock of that big change, I left this painting alone for quite a while. When I tried to go in and refine it, I ended up wiping off whatever I tried. Nothing looked right. Nothing looked like it went with what was already there. It hung in my studio, urging me to take the other paintings in the series further, to be bolder.
Eventually I realized that I needed to return to the zone I made those radical moves in. How? I had no idea. I just kept trying. One day, I was so frustrated I abandoned all my ideas and trusted that I would make the right move. I mixed up dark super thin paint, loaded up another brush with thick palest blue and wham—there it was.
Finished
You can see I added quite a bit of lighter paint and that central cascade that gives the painting its title. Orange oil pastel was one of the last touches, as well as simplifying the upper area.
That’s the story of the evolution of This funny cascade. This painting sold to one of my wonderful subscribers the day before Riverdale ArtWalk opened to the public. Whenever I have new work, subscribers always get the first look and the first chance to buy. There’s a form below if you’d like to sign up.
Thanks for reading. If you haven’t visited yet, please check out Riverdale ArtWalk. It features around a hundred artists. You can visit my storefront at the ArtWalk here.
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