Small Studies

Moonlight study

5x7

Oil on panel

I have been painting some moonlight studies this past month.  I am using 5 x 7 panels.  Usually I first cover them in orange or ocher and mix it with liquin.

This creates a nice ground to work on rather than white.  What  I like about the small studies is you can take a quick idea and instantly have something.  I was first inspired by George's Seurat drawings.  They were interesting in that they didn't spell everything out.  They have a warm glowing feeling for me.  The light of the paper hovers around the forms.  

 

I made a series of paintings in where I painted the panel blue and the put a layer of black over everything.  I then used sand paper to get through to the blue.  The process was time consuming and hard labor but the results gave evidence to this fact. It was more reductive and felt a little like sculpture where I would be surching  the form.  In these drawings I am drawn to the way in that light makes its way through darkness.