TENS and FIVES

I’ve just completed a series of 10 paintings loosely based on the theme...horizons. My intention was to create different atmospheric moods and tension in landscapes where the primary focus is the horizon. The results were predictable, based on my long experience with painting. On a scale of 10, two of the paintings were 10s, most were 7-8s and one I would give a 5 or 6.

The challenge of course is to eliminate the 5s and 6s and paint more 10’s, but that is easier said than done, and I’m not sure it is even possible to do so, or desirable. I find that once I am engaged in a series of paintings over several weeks the process seems to take on a life of its own, each painting exerting an influence on the next, both consciously and unconsciously. Because I work intuitively, creating landscapes with little or no reference material, some of what results cannot always be repeated in another painting and I have to trust myself that the more I work, the greater the chance that everything will come together for another “10”. In between the 10s are the paintings that we learn from, they are the ones that make the 10s possible. And of course, someone’s 5 is another persons 10, something all of us who sell art are very grateful for.

Here is my ten:

Warm Clouds

Here is the five:


Winter