SOLD  TM8959 Bright Blue Days 36×60 oil on panel

A few warm days, a bright blue sky, and moods just have to lift. Mine did. The experiments with abstracting the pondscapes (on a small scale) led to this larger interpretation. Both the mood and the space open up, in part due to a change in the scale of the mark-making. I used my soft rubber rollers as much as possible, instead of relying on brushes to define the masses and objects. The result is a wider range of marks, more nuanced edges, and a feeling of air moving through and around the painting. It was an exhilarating experience. The use of the rollers also opens up the option of working larger – uh oh. Details below. Enjoy.

TM8959 Bright Blue Days – detail from left of center with overlapping reflections set against blue sky

TM8959 Bright Blue Days – detail from center with foliage reflections

TM8959 Bright Blue Days – detail from upper left with reflected sky and vegetation – note use of geometric roller marks to create a variety of soft and hard edges

TM8959 Bright Blue Days – detail from right of center showing use of roller to achieve layered soft edges

Technical painting notes: I started the painting by rolling on a mixture of umbers and blues, mixed with Liquin, linseed oil, and mineral spirits. I “disturbed” the wet paint with rags, solvent, and scraped some gestural lines . When the first layer was dry, I started working with my smaller rollers (1-2″) to layer in masses, letting the roller skip around (I added some Liquin to the paint to speed drying). After each layer was dry, I defined negative spaces and plant forms with some brush work, then rolled into the wet paint to integrate new work with the earlier layers. I kept repeating this process until the image felt resolved, understandable but still as loose and gestural as possible. My color choices were determined by the bright blue sky and greens of the reflected foliage. With so much blue green, I had to introduce some complementary orange. The use of olive green and green gold to contrast with the thalo and minty greens provided one source of range. The lemon yellows contrast with the warmer yellows (edging toward mustard). I added the almost pink/salmon details to again offset and complement the blue greens. The blues range from cerulean (warm) to vivid cobalt (cold).