Thunder Road 3 panel 36 inches by nine feet.  This base is near finished. It has been a struggle working with brown as the general direction of this theme.  As can be seen, what started as a chance to work with a group of colors, that have been sparingly used in the past, have  over the last few days, been painted over. In time maybe the skill to work similar colors together will develop, but this just is not that time.

The color range brown was chosen because this song, and its lyrics are gritty, dirty, rough, harsh, unforgiving, hopeful, sad, encouraging, and basic rock and roll. The surprise was that Burnt Umber and Transparent Brown Iron Oxide turned out to be the best of the browns in the acrylics. The disappointments where Burnt Sienna, and Van Dyke Brown Hue, too green.  The Van Dyke was purchased purposefully for this project, and the acrylic Sienna just is a weak color compared to the Windsor & Newton water based oil.  The thinking is that the oil Burnt Sienna will be used later with the notes and that could help push this works color theme back towards the browns.

There is a realization that development of this artist skills improves, incrementally with each new work. Some sharper shifts at times do occur.  Recent examples are found, for instance with the Birthday Painting from this last year, or I Call Your Name, completed last January.  With Thunder  a  small style technique,  that is missing from Hallelujah, is seen in the bands of different colors across the top.  This change could have a big effect on future works.  Funny, it probably does not look like much, but it takes a lot to put together each of these work together, and what has worked in the past, gets the first chance.   Art takes time to develop and this artist is hoping that time will be generous.

Scott Von Holzen