Essence of art

27 Oct Essence of art

My latest painting “Essence” has come from a long road of education.  Essence of art is intangible.  Some of that education came from making some mistakes which turned out to be fortunate:  I once dropped a drip of combination turp & oil paints onto a canvas to find that it made a perfect circle on the painted canvas.  I used it to make bubbles on my seascapes.  I once made a mistake and painted a background black but once it got started I realized it might give some awesome results.   I went ahead with it and discovered it gives a totally different essence to the finished product.  “End of Autumn” is my latest canvas done on a black surface but it gives the trees a dimension not possible with a white background.

  For some unknown reason I will paint in oils for a couple of years and then the bug hits for pastels.   I am about to trade over to pastels but I have been painting in oils for the past two years.  Pastels are completely different in nature but their secrets came early once I started using them.   I signed up for a class in oils and the teacher insisted I use her pastels and I was so happy and surprised I painted with them for a number of years.  Here’s one of my most decorated pastels “Summit Mountain” which hung on Senator Bennet’s wall in Washington, DC for two years:

The principal of “giving forward” is ever in my mind as a Christian.  So this last weekend I went with a group and participated in the “Walk for Life.”  If everyone just picked one good cause and participated the world would be a different place.  What could you do for someone else this week?

Near the Wyoming border Summit Mountain rises above the fall colors.