As always happens with series, each new painting teaches me more about the subject. I discover ways to create depth, I notice new color shifts, and begin to see how to simplify. In my experience, new iterations don't beget repetitiveness; rather, they branch out in different directions and inspire new ideas. [...]
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Instead of following a map, I had to just start looking and listening and responding to what I saw. What a discovery: I became much more attuned to my senses, noticed colors, edges, shapes throughout the painting process in a way I don't always--because I am thinking about where I'm going, not where I am now. [...]
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The key to any good composition is to recognize it first as an abstract pattern. This means simplifying the scene into shapes rather than things. The scene caught me with its interesting pattern of lights and darks. [...]
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One thing is certain: a safe painting will never be a wow painting. High-impact paintings take risks. They make strong statements with mood, color, composition, texture, design, edge. So in order to paint a wow painting, try letting go of your fear. [...]
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The human eye can distinguish more shades of green than any other color. For artists this is a blessing and a curse. We can easily recognize when greens are ‘wrong' in a painting in the same way that we can recognize when the human face or figure is wrong. It's not so much that these things are harder to paint, but that we're better at detecting when things are off. [...]
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