not for sale 

6×8 oil on canvas panel Yesterday I mentioned how I’m noticing that making bright, intense color work in a painting usually requires a foil of dark neutrals. This second study illustrates one way this happens in nature, as the colors leave the landscape and return to their source. Seems that the sun draws all color back to itself in increasing brilliance as the last tips of the trees are drained of their bright hues. It was a fun and worthwhile study in arranging shape patterns, values and hues. A closer look at how things work is a useful exercise, if you’re trying to infuse your own work with better understanding of what you’re doing. I’ll be applying what I’ve found to my upcoming still life set ups.

Plagiarize, plagiarize, / Let no man’s work evade your eyes, / Remember why the good Lord made your eyes, / Don’t shade your eyes, / But plagiarize, plagiarize, plagiarize. / Only be sure to call it research. (Tom Lehrer)

Research is an organized method for keeping you reasonably dissatisfied with what you have. (Charles F. Kettering)

Research serves to make building stones out of stumbling blocks. (Arthur D. Little)