Charlotte at Belwood Lake radiates warmth and captures a quiet moment of grace – the feeling of of wading through water on a hot summer day.
Charlotte at Belwood Lake radiates warmth and captures a quiet moment of grace – the feeling of of wading through water on a hot summer day. When you’re a child you notice things and feel them differently. The gooey lake bottom beneath one’s feet squishing through one’s toes and the way the cool water moves around ones legs as felt by a child. Truly sensing the world around them.
My painting style is called Representational Realism. I paint from real life where my images are recognizable, but don’t adhere strictly to the rules of realism. Painting high realism is tedious. I don’t believe paintings should strive to be a photograph. Being being able to interpret a scene frees my mind from rules and constraints of everyday life. The interpretation is where the fun is! For instance – the way the sunlight is shining on the figure’s forward leg. I decided to skip adding the minutia details and paint the leg and the knee as abstract shapes.
Bright vibrant living colour combined with soft brushwork are characteristics in my art work.
Legibility is also important to me. I paint clear and well anchored compositions to make it easy for viewers to read my visual message.
I use bright vibrant colour along with colour temperature to define spaces. Using bright colour in the foreground and cooler colour in the back of the scene is one technique I apply to create the illusion of depth.
My creative process involves working from photos I’ve taken of the people and places close to me, and the places I’ve been. Finding quiet beauty in local scenes, moments in my life, my children, are all equally inspiring as the faraway places I’ve travelled.
Once the image is carefully selected, I sketch thumbnails to help me determine the composition. Because I want my paintings to read clearly I intuitively build strong anchor points into my work. Focal points are well defined and found near or in the centre. This helps the viewer knows what is important to look at in the painting. Beside my easel, I put the image up on my computer as a reference. Using technology allows me to zoom in and understand sections of the photo that are hard to see. I decide what size canvas is a suitable match and using a brush I draw loose gestural lines with thinned out pigment to provide a template. After staining the background, I use bright vibrant colour along with colour temperature to define spaces. Using bright colour in the foreground and cooler colour in the back of the scene is one technique I apply to create the illusion of depth. I slowly build up the layers of oil paint. It can take me several weeks to finish a piece.
Painting gives me the language to explain what I love about the world. While it began as something I do for myself it brings my life meaning to share my observations with others. By using a paint brush I’m able to communicate to the world what I think is important about life.
It is the quiet way I communicate in a world full of noise what words cannot. I hope my paintings find you well and bring you joy.
