Dogwood Branch

Dogwood Branch

8x24"

Oil

$200

DPW $160

     The dogwoods here on our property are white, but I pinked this one because I wanted it to stand out on a greenish background. The dogwoods in this series are from photographs I took last year. In order to paint something other than the color it is, I have to render it in black and white, grayscale, on the computer. Otherwise I would forget what I am doing and start painting the color I see, white. Having photographs that I could alter helped in this case.

Dogwood on Red

Dogwood on Red

8x10"

Oil

$160

DPW $130

     I wanted to paint the simplest thing with as few strokes as I could get away with. I painted the flower itself first and then the leaves and then the stem. Finally, I put in the red background. The painting is small and simple, and because I did not allow myself to go back into the shapes, it remains fresh. I could easily have overworked it, but I am trying to "look more, paint less." (Sure is red.)

Dogwood Pair

Dogwood Pair

8x8"

Oil

$128

DPW $102

     There is a rule somewhere against painting two similar objects without something to unbalance them, and I usually go by the practice of placing the focal point in the upper part of the canvas, in a "sweet spot." But I just thought these little dogwoods were so pretty that I painted what I saw and broke my own rules. I did try to make one more dominant than the other, but it is still a pair of dogwoods. "So sue me. Shoot arrows through me."

Dogwood

Dogwood

6x8"

Oil

$96

DPW $65

     This spring the dogwoods of so many varieties were wonderful in Nevada County. This flower is in a tree on our hillside. It was surrounded by many others, so I cropped it out and only suggested faintly the others in the picture. It is easy to render white flowers uncomfortably cool so I used burnt sienna and yellows in the greenery and shadows to warm it a little. Paying attention to the shadow of a flower, treating it as a sort of geometric shape is very interesting. It seems to make all the difference.