Fashion shoot, Central Park, Golden Hour

oil on board 8x10

I really like my technique here which I shall continue to explore. I'm leaving a lot of black in the background as if we live in a dark world with the images and forms coming out of the darkness. I've even left a dark line around the photographer. The Central Park Boathouse (see below) is in the same technique. Leonardo, I think, also had this kind of view of the world as a dark place. Not that this is painted with his sfumato (smoky) handling of the edges. Click on "smoky" for a link to James Gurney's remarks about it. The impressionist technique would be the opposite of my painting. They never used black in the shadows and thought of the world as a light-filled colorful place.

The Great Lawn, Central Park

11x14 oil on board

A quick plein air sketch of this magnificent lawn. It was recently rehabilitated. It used to be some swampy grass growing on dirt with which they filled in an old reservoir. They dug it up, build in drainage, and planted it with care. I don't know what possessed me to do such a quick sketch on such a big support. I think it would have been nicer smaller given the technique. It must have had it lying around.

While I was out there painting, a lot of painters, painters wives and widows came by and offered advice most of which consisted of simplifying it more. Actually not bad advice. It was fun talking to them. Of course, there are always people who start with "Are you a painter?" and then point out something that either isn't in the painting or is on the canvas but no longer in the scene. James Gurney (click to see his blog) says that, in this situation, he denies he's an artist. Instead he tells people that he's a mental patient whose psychiatrist told him to take up a hobby. That shuts people up I'm sure.