Into the Depths and other musings about painting

Into the Depths, oil, 8x10, ©2013 Philip Frey

Here's one of the many paintings that currently lines the walls of my studio. It was painted from a photo on my iPad (my preferred method of photo reference - cheaper are better for the planet I think).

Here's a bit of why I decided to paint this. During an early August morning on Great Cranberry Island I road my bike along the road to a painting sojourn on the far end of the island. This scene caught my eye. The light was raking across the freshly, yet jaggedly mown field and framed through an opening between two groves of trees was the distant and misty Mount Desert Island. The purple-blues of MDI provided a nice counterpoint for the predominant earthy colors of the field and tidal area in the mid ground.

One of the things that I have been trying to pay close attention to in my work these days is edges. A think a good representational painting has a variety of edges, from soft to sharp. It helps the eye move through the composition and allow it to rest or focus where you want it to. Two contemporary artists that do this well are Connie Hayes, especially in her landscape and architecture work and Colin Page in his plein air work. Of course, there are masters like Edward Hopper (his Monhegan paintings are amazing), Anders Zorn, John Singer Sargent.