June 16, 2019
490mm x 390mm
Acrylic on Canvas

There’s a tremendous amount of problem-solving that goes into art – probably more than most people would think. I’d say as an artist you spend most of your time rounding the corners on a sculpture until you get close to what you’re picturing in your head. Of course other things could happen like a happy accident in the process that opens up new directions or you round too much off and you get junk and have to start over. 

Sometimes it seems you run into issues. They make you have to take steps back, turn down or off some techniques or applications to get to the root of something . That’s what I did with these two.

A lot of times artists don’t really show the ‘tweener’ works that happen between their eras of quality work where things didn’t line up before they hit a certain stride for a bit. However, love seeing them and seek them out when I get to thumb through works. I think these are the pieces that give the greatest insight into the artist’s process. 

June 16, 2019
490mm x 390mm
Acrylic on Canvas

In these two, I was concerned with whether there was in fact too much distance between the hues and values between the sky and the earth and I wanted to test out if it was an issue specifically of hue or one of value. 

What I found was that I think I’m passable with both but my handling of the cloudless portion of the sky was much more of an issue than I would like – that and there needs to be a lot of attention to how much horizon should be included…that second one, sigh.

Looking back at prior works of mine, I can see it plain as day. There’s an inconsistency between the cloud and the sky in paint handling. I think I have fallen into the trap that I rail against – painting what I know is there rather than what I see is there. It will be something to work on in the future.