Brown House, Fernwood

And now, one of the finest paintings I have done to date:

Brown House, Fernwood 16 X 20" 2008
Yes, it really is brown, but all the blues and violets make it look yellow or orange. OK, I guess it is kinda yellowish. I did, though, muddy the tube yellow with considerable amounts of violet to dull it down.

Extremely gratified with this piece, especially the strict composition with it's rigid framework of horizontals, verticals and diagonals, subtle colour harmonies and sensitive modulations, and overall dry, gritty, matte paint quality.

Because the camera loses so much, I took the trouble of scanning the thing in so I could present the painted surface--and the colours-- a little more accurately.

Here, I think I successfully represented the "twiggy-ness" of overgrown and leafless bushes without having to paint every twig, and the glare of the winter sky with some wet-into-wet paint application. I was heavily inspired by both Cezanne and Pissarro in the handling of the bush/ wall interface, as you can see.

Mmmm, candy! Love those coppery/ mauvey modulations.

All the planes in this piece--maybe even the roof planes--have been aligned with the picture plane (that is, the 2-D actual painted surface). This gives the painting a monumentality and static gravity, in spite of its relatively small size. It holds the wall.

More of the same, please!!

N