Redtree Times

This is a piece from early last year, titled The New Labyrinth.  I do several pieces of this nature every year and always count them among my favorites to perform.  They are done in a very free-form fashion, usually starting in one corner and allowed to build into the picture frame on its own accord, until I get the sense that I should stop.  As each new building is painted it creates new parameters for the next, new prompts for my eye.  As a result, the piece has a very organic feel for me. as though there has been a natural growth in the painting.

I particularly like this painting for this feel but maybe more so because of the use of similar, muted colors in the buildings.  There is almost a monochromatic feel to the piece that I find appealing especially in the context of the subject.  It harkens back to the days when I first started painting and would do exercises where I would paint scenes using only one color, only varying the shades of it to create depth and texture.  It was probably one of the most important lessons I learned and one that I urge all novice painters to try at least a few times.  Knowing how to create harmony within the confines of a single color is necessary if you ever hope to control a larger palette.

There is also a really nice natural rhythm that runs through this piece, giving me a sense of my normal landscapes.  This probably occurs because of the way I described how the painting is allowed to grow in an organic way.

It’s a piece that has visual interest in every bit of it which is something I strive for in all my work.  I would like to think that you could take a random fragment of any of my paintings and find something that catches your eye in it.

I keep a photo of The New Labyrinth on a bulletin board I keep in my studio and I look at it quite often, thinking that I really should paint in that way again soon.

Maybe I will…