In this series, plein air painter and instructor Jeanne Mackenzie takes a look at new paintings by contemporary artists and points out why they succeed as painted images. This week, Rick Wilson‘s “Lobstah Boats.”
This quiet harbor scene appears to be very close to a monochromatic palette. The artist has taken the next chromatic step in using tones that are all in the same family but lean toward their primary color. You can see that the boat is yellow, the water blue and the trees green, but they are so close in hue that they impart a calm, harmonious feel while still saying color. The isolated small grouping of boats act as a nice “place setter” to help balance the main subject. Notice where your eye goes as the artist leads you to the hard edge of the boat’s bow. He uses the color, contrast, detail, and edge work to make a focal point statement. He follows through using lost edges to lead your eye around the painting.
