Buttons and Bananas

Buttons and Bananas
Oil on linen on art board • 8" x 10" Sold
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On display 5/3/13–6/25/13 in the
2nd Annual MVIS Competition
 at SouthWind Art Gallery

I am currently obsessed with green. While my artistic eye was still quite immature, I found green rather "boring." But later, my eyes were opened to the beautiful array of greens that occur in nature. Right now, I am especially fascinated with painting green color harmonies, particularly those occurring under cool light. You may notice this trend in a lot of my current paintings (eg. the last piece I posted, Emerald Musings). My green obsession influenced the still life on the right, although the setup was the group effort of my girlfriend Andrea Orr, our good friend Jonathan Stasko and me. The only thing better than painting is doing it with those you hold dear!

Making a green harmony our primary goal, we gathered the still life objects according to their color while purposely ignoring how the items related to each other in any other way. The result was an eclectic and unconventional grouping of objects that I found most refreshing.

This still life taught me a few good lessons I think we can all benefit from. First, decide from the very start what you want to "say" with your painting. It could be a story, a lighting situation, a color harmony (as in this case), or whatever. Then, fix your mind singly on that goal, refusing to be distracted by other ideas, and pursue it until you find the best way to communicate it. Second, don't worry if your solution is unconventional. If you're excited about it, go for it! When you're able to approach your canvas with excitement, your excitement will often (1) show through in the end product and (2) be contagious, causing your viewers to share in your excitement over something they might not have otherwise even noticed.