AfternoonGathering

The entire landscape of this painting was created "en plein air"! I sketched where the figures would be, took my van halfway down my dirt driveway, placing the 36x48 linen canvas on the rear bumper...and painted the entire landscape ON THE SPOT! (Today, the tree in the sunlight is now gone! New neighbors were more fascinated with their chain saw, than the beauty! So, a small piece of "local history" is now only seen in this creation!) Thank goodness I did the painting while it still graced this meadow!
Then I returned to the studio, and selected from 5 or 6 photos that I had shot years ago, when I became fascinated with the "Color" WHITE! Why? Because white has every color in the rainbow! And to go a few steps further into the expression of "white" ... I chose this wonderful flock of country geese, also photographed many years ago. Picking just the right ones, to lead the eye into the painting, flowing into the full design...allowing a few to be almost LOST against their background, by the shift in colors and values, which allows so many shapes, to remain simple yet supportive of my final creation! Like music, there has to be a flow and ebb in all elements! Each element is important to the TOTAL, but each has its own voice and "note" to sing!
I love color, but color only works completely, when you understand the power that value plays in any one creation! When you realize that all a painter has is values 1 to 10! And in that range, to create sunlight and shadow, lost and found, importance and not so important...and thus capturing mood and magic!!