A new Southwest Painting

I have been working on the Southwest as an abstract theme since my trip out to Zion and Brice several years back and occasionally hit what I feel is the essence of the place. This new piece is dominated by the desert dryness in the middle of the canvas with long passages of landscape vistas in black. It feels to me like looking down on the salt flats of Utah with its heated dryness and textures of sodium deposits. The orange is the pieces of sedimentary formations that begin to protrude out of the desert at the southern edge of the plain. I have many more pieces of southwest paintings at the Studio Gallery in DC.

Entry to the BWS regional show

I hardly ever enter watercolor shows because I just never know what to submit. I am so involved with the abstract acrylics that I feel rather odd presenting fairly representational work to shows. But after the wonderful 3 day "Moving towards Abstraction" workshop and the feedback I received on my figures I decided to enter 2 figures to the show. I have always thought they were nice and do represent how I would like to paint figures. They have enough detail but are based on a fairly abstract composition and a personal style of handling the medium.

Two worlds of Steve

As many of you know I am a long time representational painter who loves to paint traditional watercolors. I use both my abstract and representational paintings to improve my vision and artistic language. I make long excursions into abstract painting with the intention of returning to representational with an improved sensitivity and creative interpretation. I have learned strong color, and better design possibilities through my abstract travels and when I return to the more traditional paintings I feel more alive and inspired. Never be afraid to experiment with new ideas for fear that your preferred style will suffer it won't happen.

Changes to a painting

When a painting doesn't work even if you kind of like it then it is important that you keep on working with it even if it means a totally new direction for the piece. I am going to show you the before and now version of the piece. I have always maintained that a less than successful painting is not going to improve with age, it is not a good vintage wine that just needs time. So I like the idea of the original because it was my entry into the Africa series but it was too derivative of a whole line of painters and not a very good derivation. So over the next few days I plan to really get into this one and I hope it will work out.

Searching and Searching

I spent some time looking at some Franz kline pieces and found his use of overlays of color on top of the ground to be very powerful when played against the starkness of black symbols. For this piece I use a blue ground and came back over it with a very pail white wash that was reinforced with strong passages of white appied with a pallette knife. It definitely is something that makes me wonder if there is more here for me to work on. This is a really small study 16 x 16 and I am planning on giving it some air in a more grand scale.

trying out some new color pieces

In order to move into some new areas of work I have been studying the color theories of Josep Alpers and am trying some out in a very small format of 12 x 12 and 16 s 16. I am pretty excited about these. It is my goal to keep growing and pushing my limits and it should be every painters' goal. I have certain skills and they are pretty good but I always am looking for the defining personal statement and that is what I work everyday for find.

It goes on

Searching for the moment when your skills are in total synch with you inner vision is the great goal of an artist. For me it drives me to paint more and more trying for new ways to say the things I want to put down on canvas or paper. I do think that there are ways for the artist to be unique even if some will say it has all been done before. But remember even if it has been done before it has not been done by you so keep pushing and painting.