Chromatic Gray

Here's a view of the Connecticut River from Middle Haddam yesterday.  This is a 12x12.  Sometimes the square format suits a subject well.  I've painted at this location many times, almost always using a horizontal format, and usually with a high horizon line.  But yesterday afternoon's clouds were so spectacular that I had to make them prominent.

It was also a good excuse to play with subtle variations of chromatic grays.  For non-painters, that's a fancy way of saying gray formulated from primaries, rather than black and white (which tends to be ashen, and not suffused with color).  Chromatic gray is how Mother Nature mixes gray on her palette.

I always enjoy the lyric in Counting Crow's song "Mr. Jones" that goes: "Yeah, well you know, gray is my favorite color."  Adam Duritz, however, probably was singing about gray because he thought it had a cool grunge connotation.  I like chromatic gray because of the subtle beauty of its seemingly infinite variations, and the way it serves as a foil for more vibrant colors.

Ah, color theory.  Gotta love it.

Ready to Plow

It's been a beautiful spring here in Glastonbury.  This week at Horton's Farm, they were dusting off the tractors, preparing to plow the fields.  Just after I started painting, the green John Deere was called into service.  But fortunately it returned to pose for me after a couple of hours.  I like the contrast of the old and new tractors.  I guess painting is generally all about finding and balancing contrasts -- color, value, even subject matter.

Forsythia

I just painted this 12x24 in South Glastonbury, capturing the arrival of spring.  


Although I've often painted among these barns, this is the first time I had access to the western part of Horton's Farm.  What a spectacular view, looking back up with the morning sun raking down from behind the structures.  The emerging grass just glowed!  


Forsythia?  Well, I got a little cute with the title.  Two small forsythia bushes are back-lighted in the upper right corner.  I admit, coming up with titles is not my forte.


You wouldn't know it, but the wind on this brilliant spring morning was steady at about 15 knots!  I had to anchor my easel box by placing my backpack in it.  But, like the Irish proverb, the wind was rising up behind me, as my back was turned toward the Connecticut River. Much better than wind in my face, which really grabs the canvas like a sail.


A fellow painter, Kim Ruggiero (take a look at her beautiful work at: www.ruggierogallery.com), commented that all the little barns on the horizon were like gathering people.  I like that. Reminds me of how the gestures of trees are sometimes quite anthropomorphic.

Inaugural Blog

Welcome all!

This is my debut into the blogosphere.   Seems like only yesterday that Al Gore invented the internet.  Heck, I remember the days of warming things up without a microwave.

Well, for my very first blog post, here is a recent painting, "Hilltop," 24x48.  It was just accepted to the 111th Annual Juried Art Exhibit of The New Haven Paint & Clay Club (www.elyhouse.org).  Wow!  William McKinley was in The White House during their first show.  Picasso had yet to take a detour that would turn the art world upside down.

Since The NHP&CC is geared toward contemporary art, I decided to enter this piece. It is based on the painting below that I did several years ago on location at Hammonassett State Park on the Connecticut shoreline.  The nature center is silhouetted atop the hill by the November afternoon light.

The original was 10x24, with less forground.  In my frustration to solve the problem of so much foreground in the new piece, I pulled a knife on my painting, and used bolder colors than in the more subdued original.  The intent was to pull the foreground closer to the viewer and create more depth looking back to the hilltop. I found the palette knife to be a great way to push the energy level of this piece, a nice departure from my usual assortment of brushes.

Well, thanks for visiting.  I look forward to doing more of this blogging thing and sharing many more of my paintings and thoughts with you.

Ken