How to "Train" your painting.

How to ""Train" your painting.

Much like a popular movie that my kids watch (I haven't actually seen it yet) when we endeavor create new things, or change them to suit our will; frequently WE end up undergoing the greater change. This is true with my most recent venture into the world of trains.

I've been doing a series of train paintings recently. I find that they are a most interesting subject that often gets overlooked for the artistic qualities they possess; the dark and light differences, the shadows, reflections, structure, dynamic lines, hard and soft edges. All these work together to make an object, in a setting, that begs more attention. The beauty of the subject revolves around the possibility to express it in extremely abstract terms, or in a very literal voice. Much like figure painting it makes things interesting, and the possibilities of artistic manipulation and expression endless.

I find structure interesting, especially structures that deal with natural settings, trains make the perfect candidate. I have a feeling that structures will make a larger presence in my landscape paintings in the future.

Here's a recent study that just got sent to Mountain Trails Gallery in Jackson, Wy. I've got a larger one at the Springville Museum of Art's annual show "The Spring Salon" that I'd like to show, but I don't have pics yet...I will have to post that soon.