Autumn is a welcome excuse to go crazy with red and orange. It’s an exuberant time of year. The brisk weather energizes me, and the energy translates into the paintings. This week I painted red with real abandon, as you can see below.

TM8807 Ardent October 6×6 oil on paper

TM8815 Crazy October 6×6 oil on paper

TM8808 An Excess of Autumn 6×6 oil on paper

Technical painting notes: All three paintings above relied on mostly palette knife work to build the image. Each started with an abstract base of color mixed with a large amount of Liquin Impasto medium. The Impasto medium gives thickness and dimension to the paint, resulting in a rich surface.. Adding some Liquin original medium to the tip of the knife lets one manipulate the slipperiness of the paint and create skips of color. The mediums also speed the drying. When the base layer is dry, I go in with a touch of brush work to define the major elements. In each of these paintings, I wanted the excitement of juicy abstraction, but I also wanted to retain the feeling of landscape space and an acknowledgement  of the particular place that inspired me.