Oil on panel, 30 X 30 inches, unframed
Exhibited, Galllery 89, Steamboat Springs, CO
 
My thanks to the dear friend and collector that purchased this work!
 
About this oil:
How to make red redder? How to make a simple composition compelling?
 
For this work, the impenetrable forest is arranged to allow you into the thicket of tree trunks - just enough to be interesting and care was taken to shape the upward moving branches, making them bulge out to create mass.
 
Beyond the trees is the open sky, creating more depth and interest. Even though the sky is not as bright, it is still saturated with colors to create more interest.
 
So, to make the red redder..
Once I set up this composition, I used every opportunity to increase the redness. There are numerous non-red colors at the tree tops: blue, pink and greyed-purples. At the tree bottoms, a green-grey is scumbled over the reds to create shadows. In the area between those two zones, a close-knit combination of reds are allowed to speak at full strength, setting up a vibrant glow.
 
And to push the vibrancy even more, a bright yellow field provides a strong counterpoint. It did start out simply enough but it took a lot of moves to get the most out of those wonderful, red trees.