Afternoon Gathering

This creation, one of my “Women in White” series, was created on location, for the entire landscape, which was the bottom of my 300 foot long dirt driveway! I sketched out where the figures and geese would be, and kept those areas free of any paint. Once the landscape was complete, I returned to the studio to paint “My Women in White”.
How did I get involved with this subject? The average person thinks that “white is white is white”. But I choose to differ: “White” can be all colors of the rainbow! An artist has to create the illusion of depth, and we do this by playing opposites: Violet is the compliment of Yellow, Red the opposite of Green, and Blue the opposite of Orange. Thus one goose is not at all like the goose next to it! Tho, ALL are “white”, not one is like the other! The Redhead comes forward of the green trees behind her, because of values and also red and green are complementary. And the sunlit area, beyond them is kept in high key value, so that the figures in the shadow area, hold together as a unit!
In all of my paintings, I am “pushing the envelope”, that is, I use those elements to give strength and dimension to my paintings.