Red, White, and Blue, USA

 This painting is called Red, White, and Blue becuase I painted it in Washington DC the capital of USA, and also because the scene itself had this profound red white and blue colour scheme. The port-o-let and the sky were blue, the white roof of the device was white, and the letters on the sign on the front of it, as well as the bricks from the houses in the background were red. Seemed fitting. I suppose I have had a history of painting port-o-lets, outhouses, and garbage cans. Ususally when I location I do try and find definitive scenes that give the viewer a sense of where they are, and in some ways, maybe that works with this one too?

Painting shadows in a field of grass is somewhat tricky, I have tried several techniques and it usually ends up looking overworked and too detailed... keep in mind that a patch of grass which is usually at the foreground of the painting, is something that the viewer is unlikely to really notice...in fact you dont really want them to notice it becuase you want them to focus on the center of attention (the port-o-let in this case, oh what a crappy subject matter!?). So in this painting I tried to make the shadow pretty diffuse and undefined... to do that I put down the light yellow-green-brown layer for the entire lawn, going all the way from the bottom edge of the paper stopping just under the middle ground elements. When it was partly dry (on that day it was humid so it took a few minutes...on a dry day it could take only a few seconds) then I put in the dark blue-green shadow colour. To mix the shadow colour I used the same light green mix I used for the lawn, and just added a bit of ultramarine (a warm transparent blue) and cereulean blue (a thick sky-blue). When the shadow was nearly dry, then I put on some 'scratchy' details to suggest grass blades... in places these details just bled around, in others they are more defined.

5x7" cold press, 2011

Insignificant Details

This paiting despite it's name contains a lot of details, some of which I would say are significant. I will not say which details mean what, instead I prefer to let the viewer 'figure it out'. As always though, the relationship between artist and viewer is fraught with ambiguities in interpretation. Maybe it should stay that way, kind of like a Magician who doesn't share the secrets to his tricks, although these days you can go on the internet and find out just about anything including how magicians do their tricks, and apparently now, how Darlington does his watercolours.

With that segway, let's think about how I did this one... the doodleism technique has been in my repertoire for several years now, the first one probably sometime in 2003. As I read some of the old blogs I made an interesting find in how my thinking has changed. Originally to do this technique, I went through my old notes (which are always filled with doodles done during lab meetings and presentation... I swear I was paying attention the whole time though), and from those small doodles I would select the best ones to compose a design. The change somewhere along the way was that I stopped being selective about the doodles and instead forced myself to use every doodle in the book. As matter of design this creates a lot of interesting problems... if you inspect the painting above you will see several different horizon lines and discrepant perspectives, this is me trying to fit together completely different drawings into a single landscape. In the end though I think it makes a very intersting contrast. To give away a small tidbit, I will say that there a number of elements of this design that are physically connected with some degree of intent of meaning. I'll let the critics figure the rest out.

22x30" cold press. 2011

Washington DC Duke Ellington Bridge, USA

This could have been a picture from my Spain collection from 1998, however it is a recent painting done on location in Washington DC. The bridge is decorated with bronze pillars topped by eagles, and the rest of it is made from a kind of brownish stone. There was a cherry tree perhaps, blossoming in the foreground, and in the background some red tile roof houses that belong in the Mediterranean. 

Maybe the most exciting thing about painting on location is the sort of 'energy' the final painting has... careful inspection of this painting reveals a whole bunch of what you would call mistakes... I wont say what specifically, (ok, the perspective is a little off on the bridge arches, and the bridge was obviously a lot straighter in places.... but that is not the point...) when I look at this painting I can almost feel the humidity, sense the cool breeze and the hot sun, hear the cars on the bridge... I hope the viewer also gets this kind of energy. Doing things quick, and letting the paint 'do what it wants' is one way to get these effects, but the danger is you are working on the fine line of creating a disaster or a masterpiece... I guess that's what being an artist means after all.In a practical sense though, when I do studio work where you have more time, I do try and recapitulate some of the spontaneous elemts of the location work. I think doing the two types of painting (studio and location) can really help you grow.

5x7" cold press, 2011.