Restricted Space

 

Restricted Space was done on an unusual paper format, a long narrow strip that I had left over from some other paper sizes that I cut. It kind of looks like the upper margin of a lab note book, in colour. It is actually a composite of about a dozen doodles from notebooks. I called it restricted space because there just wasn't much space to paint on. Also, there is this theme of living in a futuristic tower and bubble-like abodes. I used this them in the past in many paintings, like Chiken No 5. or Lemon sunset for instance.

Restricted Space, watercolour cold press 3 1/4"  x 22 1/4" 2013 (No 1819)

Neighbors

Once upon a time there was a wedge of cheese perched upon a heron's leg walking through a forest filled with spirits and conch shells. Was there a penny lane, was Lucy in the Sky? We will never know. This painting is a reinterpretation of a landscape I recently did on a camping trip in  Mount Orford. Check out the blog on July 5th to see the original... I kept that in front as I created the current painting called Neighbors. The inspiration was from my parent's neighbor in Bolton who is also an artist, she commented that the trees in the original had faces in them. I also wanted to emulate some of the vibrant greens she put in her landscapes- though I went a little overboard perhaps with the yellow.

 Usually making green requires plenty of colour mixing to avoid an artificial appearance. In fact, green trees can be mostly purple or orange with only hints of green. In this painting however, the challenge was to come up with vibrant greens that still looked somewhat natural. I used a lot of blue and purple and mixed that with heavy pure yellow or pure virdian (a shiny emerald green). I also faded the colour intensity from foreground to background. In the fore, you will see the brightest yellow and green, in the back you see the pale blue-green/teal. In between are variations. In this way you create depth, and a feeling of natural atmosphere.

22 x 11" cold press. Sept. 2013