Putting Brush to Canvas

The actual act of putting the paint on the canvas is a multifaceted experience of observing color, shape and texture that pushes me to see the objects in both their abstract fragments and their entirety. There are the objects, their individual shapes, and the color of their environment that bounces off of their surfaces; it’s what makes the objects live together, this jumping from the object itself to the surrounding surfaces. For this series I have been starting with an acrylic under-painting that allows me to quickly throw down a sketch. Because acrylic dries so quickly, I can make adjustments one on top of the other until I get the layout just right. Pulling out the oils, I try to get the overall colors in their places, making small notes where shadows and highlights lie. This point of the painting gives an almost blocky effect to the painting as I try to develop the color while retaining the strong drawing underneath. I’ll usually let this dry a bit before I go into any more detail.