Day 20

In my early days of painting instruction from Barrie Kaufman, I had just come back to town after a visit to one of my favorite museums, the Brandywine River Museum in Chadds Ford, PA. I've always been a great fan of N.C. Wyeth, and this museum, which rests on the Wyeth family farm, has a great collection of his work (not to mention Andrew and Jamie Wyeth).  

As I was talking to Barrie about how great it was to see the paintings in person again, she asked me to write down what it was that I really liked about his work. It's funny, I had never really thought about that before. 

What I really liked was the loose approach he took to painting. Seeing them in person allows you to get really close and see the brush strokes, the application of paint and how he never really completely mixed his colors together. He let the viewer's eye mix them for him. The colors vibrate against each other. Shadows weren't just purples or grays, they had streaks of yellow, warm blues and reds.

To make a long story longer, yesterday I started looking through my previous daily paintings. Ranking them, one by one. That's when I noticed a trend that I didn't like...I had lost that loose quick painting style that drew me to my favorite artists.

So tonight's piece is my attempt to get back to that style. I tried to be conservative with my painting strokes. I feel very satisfied with my effort. I'm sure a few weeks from now I'll probably not feel the same.

PS: What a teacher Barrie Kaufman is!


Meet the Peppers, Manny, Moe and Jack


6" x 6" oil on gessoboard.

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