One of the reasons I like living here in New England is the four seasons. Light, shadow, texture and color change so much throughout the year that I am never at a loss for interesting and challenging subjects.
New England is world famous for the Autumn colors. An artist would have to be pretty oblivious not to be inspired and overwhelmed by the magnificent show every Fall here in the New England. I have found my local area (New Bedford-South Coast) to be quite inspiring. We have seaside, woods, farmland, marshland, tidal inlets, rivers, bays, harbors and more.
I decide what scenes to paint in a completely haphazard and random manner. If something jumps out at me and catches my eye, I take photos and quickly sketch it. I make notes and then decide if all of this will make a good painting. Then I go for it. I try not to overthink too much and let impulses take over.
Light is always important and the changes in light from season to season inform how I will approach a painting. However, as I have said before; Light draws the eye but the magic happens in the shadows. I find the contrast between the sun on the colorful leaves of Autumn and the surrounding landscape make for interesting and challenging paintings. There is such a riot of bright colors, muted colors, shadowed colors and nuanced shadows that one can become overwhelmed.
Instead of thinking too much about technique I try to keep it simple. When I see orange, I paint orange. When I see green, I paint green and so on. Eventually the painting starts to take shape—almost like sculpture. The shadows contain so much of what is surrounding them but provide interesting divergences from all the obvious bright colors. Hopefully this dance between light and shadow becomes a good painting.