ART OF GEORGE WILLIAM VAN HUMBECK

Even as a novice painter I was introduced to the idea of acrylic under painting for oil paintings, but I had never tried using acrylic and oil in the finish layers of a painting until recently. Although the painting is predominately acrylic, the intensity to the autumn colours brought out by this late evening light seem to necessitate a new approach. Know your mediums and let them work for you. When you do mix your mediums this way remember you will need a much longer drying (oxidizing) time and be sure to use a varnish for oil paintings.

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This is a good time to remind young artists out there that ideas are as close to you as your backyard or in this case your backdoor neighbor's yard. I enjoyed replacing their house with a more natural setting. This afforded me the opportunity to intensify the feel of the autumn colours with the use of contrasting colour in the background. I must admit that I enjoyed placing the background at the bottom of the painting.

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I've noticed that in our neck of the woods there seems to be a pattern to the comings and goings of the blue jays. They seem to nearly disappear during the summer here in South-Western Ontario. When I do see them again in the Fall it is usually with a peanut shell clenched in their beak. I removed the peanut from my photograph, wanting a less human influence depicted.