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Thursday, August 14, 2008

Paint your Vegetables

Beets   oil/canvas   8 x 24 x .5
One of the challenges that I present to myself is to paint quickly and, hopefully, passionately, using as few brush strokes as possible. That is what makes me happy. It seems that more often than not, the first way I articulate a passage is my favorite.....subsequent paint-overs may achieve more detail and more accuracy, but often fall flat in terms of energy and excitement. Vegetables offer so much as subject matter............texture, amazing color and a life-quality that somehow seems lacking in man-made objects. Of course, I am not always successful in my challenges. Some paintings seem to paint themselves, while others snail their way into being. That is the process. "Beets" was such a challenge. It was basically painted in one session, with just a few strokes added to turn up the color volume after it was dry.