Blog

The pages are flying off the calendar even though we are in the dead of winter.  Today the sun even shone!

I've just updated the galleries on the website with several new paintings that are expected to go to the Kingsway Lambton Art Show in Etobicoke on April 7. Another painting is on the easel, not quite finished. I have used psychological power in a couple of these paintings to create focal points.

Psychological power in a painting is a focal point based on a person, a face, an animal/bird, a building, a machine i.e. really anything to do with human life. The size of the psychological item is important. It may unintentionally overwhelm the painting if it is large. We can't get our eyes to look anywhere else. A large figure in a painting will make the painting about the figure. The figure is not just a minor accessory. It demands our attention.  A medium size figure in a painting is still very dominating but that may not be what the artist has in mind as far as controlling the viewer's visual experience. 

In Claude Monet's paintings,  that are about the figure-- e.g. Woman with a Parasol-- the people are large figures.  The Cliff Walk at Pourville is about the landscape and the people are very small.  There don't seem to be  many in-between middle size figures in his paintings because we find the figure so visually compelling. He has decided what the painting is about.

All this to say, I am working on 2 paintings with a bluebird sitting on a branch. It must have been breeding day as the little bluebird was in his most spectacular plumage that day. Because I don't want the bluebird to dominate the painting, he is  small. Even though his blue provides a colour intensity contrast as well as  a value(light/dark) contrast, he doesn't jump(or should I say fly?) out at you. He is a focal point but one of 3 focal points. I hoped to allow your eye to move around the entire painting enjoying the colours, textures, and shapes and not get stuck on the bluebird. 

How do you think it works for you? Let me know in the Contact page.

Bluebird in June 12"x36"

P.s. The EAG Highlights 2018 exhibition is currently showing 2 of my paintings at Neilson Park Creative Centre in Etobicoke-- Western Skies and No Passing