Shape

Field Trail 12 x 16

Julie The photo for this painting was taken with my cell phone while riding a golf cart on a bumpy field path. I loved the colors and vagueness of the photo. It forced me to look for the shapes within the photo to create the painting. I decided to paint in oil using my palette knife in hopes of keeping a loose, fresh feel to the painting. The path was an important shape and the placement was the first thing to consider when composing the painting. Then the tree shapes, sky and grasses were put into place.  I’m fairly happy with the painting although I don’t think I was successful in capturing the vague glow in the photograph.

Two Men  13.5 x 17.5

Marie  My paintings tend to have single or few subjects, usually people, so I use shape very simply.  My person is one big shape with little, less important, shapes within. To make my paintings more dynamic and interesting, I need to be careful where my major shape lies.  Centering results in a static, uninteresting composition.  I tend to place my major shape off center, paying more attention to the shape of the negative areas (the areas outside the subject) than my subject.  In the painting above, Two Men, I like the triangular, dynamic shape the two men made as a unit, and I like how it begins at the bottom left and moves to the top right.  The three negative areas are irregular and balance the triangle nicely.  This is one of my favorite paintings I’ve made lately, and I have to give Julie credit for the shapes, because she helped me with the cropping.