Tip of the month – February, 2007

My landscapes are inspired by lakes, rivers, streams, fields, forests, and mountains. This is what I know best; this is part of the environment that I live in. There are also, seasons with all the changes that they present to my environment.

When I was away from familiar surroundings in January, the Gulf of Mexico was the water that I saw on a daily basis. Everywhere that I looked, the land was flat and covered in various green plants.

I believe that inspiration can be found as close as your own backyard. With this idea in mind, I visited the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens to look for landscape inspiration. Usually, the flower is the subject of my research at Selby Gardens.

As I walked through the gardens, I scanned the scene looking for a subject that said “PAINT ME”. Nature does not always present the perfect image.

In my paintings, I am interested in light in the area of focus.

To see this area of light, I need VALUE contrast. DETAIL close to the intended focal area helps, too. COLOR contrast is another tool. MOVEMENT of lines or shapes toward the area of focus would make it perfect.

Value and color contrast, detail, and movement do not always occur in the same scene. Sometimes, the subject is right and the viewing angle is wrong.

I find a possibility for an area of focus.

I move into the scene and judge the subject from another angle.

If the selected subject does not have all of the above four elements to create an area of focus, the scene can be modified.

In this scene, there is value contrast, detail, and movement into the center of focus. By adding color contrast near the area of focus, further emphasis will be achieved.

Here, the spots of light are scattered.

Now, the shapes of light are connected. By adding more red to the plants to the right of the light, color contrast will be added to the mix of value contrast, detail, and movement.

My photo safari was rewarding. I was able to find a number of possibilities for future paintings. When searching for subject matter, remember to think value contrast, color contrast, detail, and movement as guidelines in your explorations.

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