Low Key Painting

When all the values are pretty close in a painting there is not a lot of contrast. This is known as a low key painting. Why would someone choose to execute a painting in this fashion? There's a couple of reasons. One would be to emphasize color. Another would be to emphasize design while maintaining harmony. The low values can sometimes do both, and that's what I worked on in this painting.

The orange color dominates the painting but it doesn't overpower the rest of it because it's the same value. The composition is simple, but effective, as you can see from the black and white photo below.

Green Grapes

8" x 10" oil on canvas

Another Plein Air Painting --Down by the River

Sometimes these paintings practically paint themselves. A cool sunny day with no breeze and no bugs, unless you count some tiny red beetles that apparently decided to hatch right beneath the sycamore tree where I was standing. They didn't bite so I wasn't terribly worried.

I wish they were all this easy. Looking downriver this painting was easy to compose. Foreground--rocks, Midground--sandbar, Background-- distant trees. A really lovely location and an equally lovely day spent painting.