Redtree Times

This is a painting that I recently completed (now at the Haen Gallery, Asheville) that is another example of a piece that evolved as I worked into something that I didn’t originally envision for it.

This 20″ by 30″ canvas was started at the end of 2009 and I thought at first that it would be a piece with my typical Red Tree at the front of the picture plane.  But as I painted, the composition began to shift and where I thought the tree might be n longer seemed feasible.  It would be awkward and out of rhythm.  I had painted myself out of what I had first imagined. 

And I couldn’t see where it would go from there.  No matter how I looked at it, I couldn’t see where it could possibly go.  I liked very much what I had painted thus far.  The layers of earth were sharp and organic in feel.  The color was right on– rich and complex with many layers.  But it seemed to have reached a dead-end.

So it sat for a long time.  About nine monthes. I would look and look at it yet it stumped me.  It was a puzzle and I couldn’t figure out a solution.

But one day I took the canvas from where it had been sitting, just to the right of my work table.  I began to see an answer to the question and began to work feverishly on the background and the sky, adding the water, tree and sun.  I changed the whole focus of the piece and began to see it come it together.  It could work and,  in the end, it did work for me.  It went from being a conunmdrum to being what I see as a strong and bold piece.

It just took a little time for the answers to come to light.  The title of the piece is, by the way, Come To Light.