New Painting: Pumpkin Patch

Pumpkin Patch, 2014-15, oil on linen, 13 x 18 inches 

It has been a few slow months of painting, that's the reason why this blog has been unattended for so long, but I am happy to share with you my most recent painting. I started work on this landscape over five months ago, at the time I was trying to get my juices going one late night when the painting I was working on was not coming out the way I wanted. To get my mind off that sort of thing I start new paintings, laying in loose brown and grey paint, not so much in hopes that it would turn out to be a great piece, but more as an exercise to help me loosen up.  In this case, that late night exercise turned out to be a painting I enjoyed working on, and that I'm proud of.

Paint application on this painting is different than in my past work. This landscape focuses on build up of scumbled layers, creating optical textures I have not seen in my previous paintings. In addition to the layers of paint, the mood and color choices are very different than most of the landscapes I have painting, where the color green is more prominent. In this overcast day type of painting I wanted to focus on more neutral tones, represented by the texture and color of grass as it begins to dry out when cold weather approaches.

Now that this painting is done I can focus on the larger landscape of Ireland sitting on my easel. Maybe, in no more than two weeks, that painting will be finished as well.