Fall Colors

36 x 40 Oil on Linen

In Vermont we have two versions of fall colors, the famous autumn leaves for the tourists and the harvest for the farmers and gardeners. A comparison of the two gives us an excellent opportunity to discuss how artists mix colors. Let's take, for example, a pumpkin and a maple tree full of orange leaves. Both are bright orange but one is brilliant and the other, by contrast, somewhat subdued. The maple is in full voice, the pumpkin is singing sotto voce. To convey the intensity of the maple leaves the artist uses pure colors. You can make a wide variety of oranges by mixing cadmium yellows, from lemon to yellow deep, with the cadmium reds. If it is too gaudy reduce the chromatic value by using the less severe earth colors, yellow ochre, terra rosa, siennas and umbers. Stay away from black and white as much as possible as they will rob your tree of its color. When you paint the pumpkin however black and white are your best friends, we want the pumpkin to be a bold but less intense orange. By slowly adding white we can gently bleach, and thereby mute, the color in the lights. A touch of black will delicately drain the color in the shadows, be careful not to use too much or your pumpkin will start to look moldy. Combine the two and you will have a lovely gray to subdue the color in the middle range, should you wish to do so. I'm not fond of rules so take these thoughts as my observations, not as formulas, and use them as you please.....

Oops. My pumpkin is starting to collapse. "It'll keep" I thought. I feel like a cartoon character caught in a dilemma with a good angel whispering in one ear and a bad devil whispering in the other. "It's okay Tom" said the good angel "you got a good start yesterday, don't be discouraged, keep going." "Don't be a sap" said the bad devil "the whole thing is ruined, wipe it out, ditch the still life and paint something else." "Think of the color" whispered good angel "and the design of the whole." "It's halfway to the compost heap already" sneered bad devil "just soak a rag in turpentine and get it over with. Who cares about beautiful painting anyway?" The little devil went too far there. So the pumpkin is collapsing, so what? Any good art student can paint a round pumpkin, where's the challenge in that? Try painting a convincing collapsing pumpkin. I accepted the challenge, the good angel sat on my shoulder to watch me work and the bad devil went off to see if he could create some mischief at the woodstove. So I set to work. Brilliant orange for the pumpkin, being careful not make it garish, a bit of reflected light coming back into the collapsed side. A rich, but not brilliant, yellow for the spaghetti squash, what a great chance to paint perspective. Colorful gourds in front. Drapery winding like a river around the pumpkins. "Not a bad days work" said the good angel...damn, why is the woodstove leaking smoke into the studio.....

Elizabeth set up a great still life for her last workshop. Squashes, pumpkins, gourds, it was beautiful. Rich, colorful, joyful, lovely rhythms, big sweeping motions, a late Mozart symphony. I knew I had to paint it. Our big still life table is on wheels so I moved it to my studio, then continued to work on other projects that were already started. "It'll keep" I thought. A week or so later I got started. There were two pomegranates, I love painting pomegranates. They were sitting next to each other looking in different directions, very nicely composed, but I couldn't resist breaking one open. A freshly opened pomegranate is so luscious and so juicy the sight of it makes your mouth water, how could Persephone resist eating a few seeds? I had to paint and I had to paint fast, before it started to turn brown. A few broad washes set the composition then I jumped in and painted the pomegranates. Beautiful cool whitish flesh dotted with a wealth of garnetlike seeds. What a marvel of nature, what a marvelous thing to paint. Surround it with a tough rich red skin, drive the knife through it for dramatic effect. How delightful, what fun, "lucky me" I thought "to be an artist." Just enough light left to put in that little gourd in the front. Wonderful, exhilarating, satisfying...not a bad days work.....

Breakfast

16 x 20 Oil on Linen

Like most artists I've always painted the way I wanted to paint, but have been uneasy explaining why I paint the way I do. The recent political season helped me clarify my philosophy of painting. As I considered my vote I asked myself "How does someone raised in a conservative religion come to live by a liberal philosophy?" Which led to "How can someone with a liberal philosophy paint in what most people would call a conservative style?" I grew up in a middle class Catholic/Labor Union family, the kind that voted for JFK and later Reagan. I've always loved the kindness, gentleness and humility, the "love God, love your neighbor" aspect of religion. It was a good fit with the "look out for the little guy" view of the labor unions. My interpretation of the Bible is closer to conservative socialism than it is to social conservatism. I love the core philosophy of Catholicism, it is a wonderful guide to living, but I've never been big on rules and rituals, I'd rather apply the lessons in my own way, thank you very much. I seem to have approached painting in the same way. Looking for a solid foundation to build on I sought out those who could teach me the basic concepts of painting. Beginning with light and shade, creating the illusion of three dimensional form on a two dimensional surface, moving on to anatomy to make that form more convincingly human, then on to space and atmosphere, color and composition, the laws of harmony and of dissonance, the power of abstraction. These are beautiful principles, they are a wonderful guide to painting, but I'm still wary of the constraints of rigidity and orthodoxy, I'd rather apply these lessons in my own way, thank you very much. So there you have it, one part conservative tempered by one part liberal, one part classical moderated by one part romantic, and always a healthy dose of curiosity.....