In and Out of the Garden, 30 x 36 inches

In and Out of the Garden

This is one of the paintings I created for my upcoming exhibition, and in a way I hope it captures the sense of abundance that comes from nurturing plants through a love of gardening. This painting is all about celebrating the time I spend in and out of my garden. My life and my work…

In many ways this painting was also a gamble for me because it is the largest composition I have ever attempted for my own work, it is 30 x 36 inches, and I kept to my goal of painting only from life in natural light. So I had to choreograph the sequencing of the bouquets to make sure they did not all wilt and fade at the same time, but instead gave me the opportunity to stagger when each bouquet was in full bloom. This painting was my sole focus for close to three weeks.

Another aspect of this painting that is new for me is that it was painted on my new heavy-weight linen I got from Angel. It is almost like heavy duty burlap and it is oil primed… a fantastic surface to work on and I don’t think I will ever go back. This is my favorite texture to work on because of the beautiful effects that can be achieved. The best are the scumbled affects that can be achieved when dragging a light over a dark or vice versa.

This surface requires more definitive paint application. Where I had to have a plan on how I would vary the thickness of the paint layers in order to maximize the effects. Recently, I have been pondering how much creating art must first occur in the mind before you ever act. And sharing with you the process I followed with this painting just reinforces this notion.

Here are a few detail images of the finished painting.