Wednesday, June 3, 2009

New painting for upcoming one man show

Into The Light
oil/linen, 16X20


Close-up view of brushwork

Closeup view of brushwork


Hi Everyone,
As I've mentioned in passing in some of my other blogs, I'm getting ready for my first one person show, coming up at the Bosque Art Center, July 21-August 8, 2009. I'm thrilled to be given this opportunity to have my first solo show at the venue that essentially launched my professional career. I'm sure you can imagine that I've been painting furiously to have the number of paintings I'll need to fill the space. In fact, I've probably more than enough now, but I'm always trying to do better and larger pieces, so that it's not a show of 6X8, 8X10, or 9X12 paintings. I'm just about done with the "King of the Hill Country" 30X40 painting which is to be the centerpiece of my show. You may remember the King of the Hill, study, that I posted a while back. That's the study that I did before I tackled the more ambitious piece. I'll post the large one when I'm done, which will be soon....I hope.

This painting is all about light. It really doesn't matter where this country road is. It could be anywhere. It just happens to be in Clifton, Texas, the site of my upcoming summer show. I'm pretty sure, even the folks there would have a hard time identifying it's location. But like all backlit scenes, I love the play of warms and cools, lights and darks. Everything has to be in correct proportion to everything else for these lighting effects to read properly. There isn't much room to fudge. It's one of the reasons I like painting them so much. It's like painting people. You can't fool the eye with incorrect values or color temps. They have to be right. It keeps my eye sharp. The focal point of where the road bends behind the shadowed trees is the area of greatest contrast and interest. Everything else had to be painted to be subordinate to that. I separated the shadowed tree from the trees behind it by cooling the background and lightening the value.

Thanks for visiting, Steve

8 comments:

Ben Bauer said...

IS that Marc's Panel? Loving the work as of the late!

B

Unknown said...

Congrats on the show and good luck finishing up for it.

This piece is wonderful. Thanks for posting your insights and close ups.

Teresa said...

You are an inspiration...thank you for sharing your amazing work!

Gail Kirtz said...

I love your work! It is wonderful. "Into The Light" caught my eye. It is such an exciting piece, the sense of depth, the shadows and movement is great!
Thank you for sharing your insight and processes.

Karen Hargett said...

Love this piece! I hope your show is a huge success - prepare for the heat - it's supposed to be 100+ this weekend! Summer is here!

Steve Atkinson said...

Thanks Everyone!! Sorry I took so long to respond, I was in Texas at an artist's reception for the Bosque Arts Center summer show artists. If anybody is looking for a good show to enter (and you are painting the western genre), you need to check out the Art Classic held in September at the Bosque Arts Center (formerly the Bosque Conservatory). The caliber of painters of this show continues to get better and better, year after year.

Ben---- No, it's not Marc's painting panel formula, though I do love to paint on that. It's a medium weave Utrecht linen, with my own coats of gesso. We do need to get together to paint again, let's make it happen before our move.

Jeremy, Theresa and Gail ---- Thank you so much for your very kind feedback. I love the pureness of painting the landscape. The goal is very different from a figurative piece. No story here, just light, composition and feeling. I like to see the details of other artists too, Jeremy, so I'll keep it up. For me, so much of the enjoyment of paintings come from the originality of the artist's brushstrokes.

Thanks Karen, I hope so too! We just got back from the Hill Country last weekend, and it was 95 every day. As much as I love Texas, I don't think I would want to have to deal with the heat. Wheeewww! And it's not even July yet. I don't know how you do it.

Steve

James Martin said...

Beautiful painting Steve! Finally got around to linking you on James Martin Studio

Steve Atkinson said...

Thanks James, I appreciate the link up. Love the work you're doing.

Steve