Size Matters!

"Blue, Orange and Silver"
oil on stretched canvas, 16" x 20"


A big Epiphany hit me this weekend!


I began this painting Saturday afternoon, late, on a 16 x 20 stretched canvas. Using charcoal and a fixative to sketch before I began painting, something felt easier. As I progressed through the piece on Sunday morning, I could feel a freedom with the brush I hadn't felt in a while. Then it struck me; this painting was bigger than the others I had been doing by at least four times!!


Now, mind you, when it comes to 'big' 16 x 20 is still considered small in my book, but by comparison, this painting was much bigger . . . . . . . . .I could moooove!! . . . . .my arm was in the action . . .not just my finger tips on these little guys I had been working on. A stroke now was much more than a tiny smudge. I had room to work color variation. I could P A I N T ! As you can see from the quality of this work versus some of the previous small ones, this painting is an order of magnitude better. Size does matter. . . .at least for me. While this painting looks like it was done 'tight' I could feel a looseness as I was massing in the subject that I am not able to do on very small stuff.


I have some more thoughts about this and the small, daily work. I am going to think those ideas through a little more, beginning with the type and sizes of the brushes I have been using on those lil rascals. But that is another subject.

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