Defocused

Holton Rower has a whole set of paintings that look like they're completely out of focus (http://holtonrower.com/?page=gallery&section=painting&category=focus).  It's a really cool effect and those paintings were the inspiration for this; namely, I wanted to see if I could come close to replicating that seamless, blur effect.  I wanted to keep it very simple and use only a few colors (white, primary blue, phthalo blue, lemon yellow, and medium yellow) and then blend them as smoothly as possible.  

This is the scene from the back porch of a lake house owned by my aunt and uncle (of course, it's not really the actual scene, more of the feeling you get standing out there in the late afternoon).  I was attempting to highlight the water and sky.  Initially, I was going to add an in-your-face, bright, jarring cube in the middle (as the lake house), but never got around to it and now think it would ruin this piece.  It ended up being nice, basic, non-threatening, and kind of peaceful the way it is.  

The first two pictures were taken using flash (showing the effect of the gloss medium).  It took a lot of attempts to get a decent picture because the autofocus on my camera phone couldn't get the right focus.  So, maybe that means I got the desired effect.

Lake House, 2012, 36 x 60 inches, acrylic and gloss medium on canvas 

Detail