Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Golden Bales

Golden Bales-9" x 12" oil on canvas panel.

This painting is a bit of an experiment for me, so I would love feedback. I have been contemplating for some time trying to merge together the paint and texture aesthetic of my oil paintings with the more designed shapes and more vibrant colors of my illustrations. This particular painting had been bumping around my studio for a couple of years in an unfinished state and I did not know how to finish it. I didn't like the colors- it was a sort of dirty yellow green palette- but I was not sure how to fix it. I was talking with friend and fellow painter Jeff Pugh the other day and he had mentioned how one of his galleries had told him to banish green from his palette for a year. I figured maybe a warmer yellow palette would work for this one. I also had a 9" x 12" frame kicking around so I trimmed the painting down from 9" x 14.5" to fit.The first step was to knock the entire painting down with a burnt sienna glaze. I then repainted the whole piece using the new palette. I emphasized the geometric qualities of the bales and let the big shapes dominate. I think the painting is much better than it was, but I am wondering if I went overboard on the saturation of the colors. Let me know what you think.

4 comments:

Jim said...

Not too saturated at all, the textures make it. were you going from a photo?

rob Adamson said...

Love the painting Greg. Especially the play between the cool blues in the background with the warm yellows and oranges in the foreground. To push the warm cool idea a little further I would consider picking up a bit of the blue in the back ground and put some in the shadows from the hay bales in the foreground.

jeffdinardo said...

Greg, I think its great. The vibrant sky is my favorite. I love it!

Unknown said...

Jim- I had a photo that I based it on, but I ended up moving some stuff around and played a lot with the lighting and the colors. You wouldn't connect the two very closely if I just showed the photo.
Rob- I was wondering if I needed to play the cools in the shadow a little more- I'll take a look at it.
Jeff- Thanks! I hope you still like your little piece.