Niels Henriksen Artworks

The last series on cacti paintings worked well in that I learnt more about greens. I realize I’m comfortable with greens and therefore the problem painting that launched the green series is not so much a problem with greens but more how I’m warming the highlights and cooling shadows.

This year I’m again heading south to the quaint and artistic town of San Miguel de Allende in Mexico. Last year I only brought my camera gear which I am again, but I’m also bringing some painting supplies. When travelling by plane, there are very limited choices due to weight and size restrictions. Since I’m gone for 3 months I thought I would pay the fees for the extra baggage and just bring more.

San Miguel de Allende Street Pano #1 “la Tortilleria

Oil on canvas board, 8” 16”

I wanted to practice a bit with street scenes before I head out on the actual streets and alleys of San Miguel. Since much of the town is composed of one story buildings I selected the 8” x 16” pano format as this allowed me to have several of the brightly and differently coloured buildings in one street painting.

The reference photo below is one I took last year from the corner of Coliego (where the staircase market starts) and Puente de Umeran.

Ref photo for San Miguel pano - La Tortilleria

Niels Henriksen

This painting is the last of my series where I was exploring green and its many shades from blue to yellow. This plant is more of a succulent than a real cactus.

The low setting sun was making strong yellow green tones in the bright light and the blue sky helped to created cooler blue shadows.

Blue and Green Succulent

Oil on stretched canvas – 16″ x 20″

Niels Henriksen

The big problem with the web and most cameras we have is that it’s impossible to show truly saturated and rich colors. The actual colors in this painting jump out with a richness that even with my advanced Photoshop skills I just can’t render in a web format. With some of the new printers I may get close but even then parts in the color gamut will be missed.

The web image compared to the painting seems a bit chalky, a little more muted. Then there’s the problem, if you’re like most computer users who haven’t calibrated your monitors, that every image will appear bluer than actual due to the high color temperature settings. This default settings makes your monitor appear brighter. The same principle applies to paper where to make a paper brighter the manufacture adds a little blue.

This is my 5th painting where I wanted to study greens and technically there are many greens here. Yellow greens, more traditional greens and blue greens. I did several pencil outlines to determine the best shape. I set the tip and bottom ‘V’ below it to both lay on the cross-points of rule-of-thirds.

Multi Colored Cactus

I know what this image represents but others I show who like this painting only see abstraction. Since abstract is a favourite genre of mine, I take what I can get.

Niels Henriksen

I am enjoying these little studies but I find the abstractness with close up views are more to my liking.
In this version I got from a web image I liked how the pinks were playing of the cooler tones of the greens. The greens don’t seem so difficult in these types of images and I’m feeling more comfortable with my own rendition of what greens I want and how they affect my visual interpretation.

Pink and Green Cactus Oil Painting

16” x 20” oil painting on stretched canvas

Niels Henriksen

This is from an image I took in the Botanical gardens in San Miguel de Allende. In this study I wanted to play around with a larger portion of entire plant not just a close up. This is one photo where I was unable to bring out the rich colors of the plant in a web image. The turquoises are out-of -gamut and color enhance here distort the others.

The one think I found was that really enjoyed doing the textured background.

Cactus Oil Painting 3 Agave - Botanical Gardens in San Miguel de Allende

16” x 20” oil painting on stretched canvas

Niels Henriksen

The last painting wasn’t truly a study in greens as it has a lot of red, but it was one that inspired me and I felt could so do justice.
For this painting a chose a closeup of an agave cactus as I found the patterns interesting and with the greens becoming lighter and more yellowish green as you got closer to the core.
I also wanted the red thorns to accent nicely with the greens.

Agave Cactus of Many Greens

16” x 20” oil painting on stretched canvas

Niels Henriksen

I was having some difficulty with what I thought were the greens emerging from all the leaves in a large painting of a field of Sunflowers. When I looked at it I didn’t like the way the greens were laid out. Not sure what was actually wrong, expect I didn’t convey the dept I wanted. First in layers of leaves and then into the distance.  I had wanted darker purple greens upfront and a bluer cooler version in the distance. Because of the yellow sunflowers, I wanted the darker foliage in the foreground to be purple/green and the rest with some blue in it.  This was making the distance tricky as there was already a lot of blue in the foreground.


I set it aside and thought I should just work on some quick studies with different types of greens. After being in San Miguel de Allende for a month I came to see cacti in a new light. Not the indoor types I see here in Ottawa, Canada. Many more larger and diverse.  Agave cacti can give simple and abstract patterns which should make these studies easier.

Red and Green Cactus

Oil on 16” x 20” stretched canvas

The first does have more red than green but I wanted something punchy for my first attempt.
I used some of my own photos and some from images found on the web to use to stretch my version here.

Niels Henriksen

I have printed 5 of my favourite fine-art photographs each in a series of 5 prints, which are signed, numbered and titled and are now available for sale from this web site.

5 New Fine Art Prints - Series 1

These can be seen now on this site at the FINE ART PRINTS tab at top of website. By clicking on a photo thumbnail you will be directed to the individual photo page which provides details about each photo.
Again clicking on photo page image you will then be presented with a 1024 pixel image to better view the quality of each image.

These images contain a watermark in the form of a signature to help deter image theft and the marks are not on the final print.

Each photograph was first printed (8”x10”) on various fine-art mate papers to best determine which texture and paper warmth/brightness best suited each image.

While each print is numbered, in this case 1-5, these are not limited editions, but a print specific series designed for the artistic effect I wanted to achieve.

A photograph in the future may be used for another series and it may be almost identical or changed, but this new series will never be sold by the artist at a price lower then its previous series.

Shipping costs are extra and are dependent on destination, insurance and any special handling needs.

Please take the time to review these fine photographs and feel free to send any questions you might have.

Niels Henriksen

I initially had only planned to do a series of ten, but when I got to the 10th painting, I felt I still had a couple more in me.
I am glad I did continue as I feel these are the best of the set.
Once again I pre-coloured the background, this time a with strong, full hue strength of Ultramarine blue and Orange.

mini painting series #11

These are very loosely done but this, for me, adds more interest and appeal. My fine-art prints are mainly about detail with the subject and therefore I want my paintings to be looser. Harder for me to achieve as I find doing detail relatively easier as I paint what I see as opposed to how I feel.

mini painting series #12

I had great fun doing the entire painting series and I know I will, once a year, try other experiments such as this. I found that for the style I want to achieve this exercise really helps me be looser with my brush.

Painting series strip complete

The full set of 12 mini paintings.
You can see as I progressed I became looser and a little more wild with the colors.

Niels Henriksen

The last 5 weeks stay in San Miguel de Allende has been quite enjoyable. There were adventures, as they are called after the fact, which slowed things down for a day or two.

I only took my camera as I felt any painting equipment would be a bit too much for this short stay. And if next time, it is only a short stay again, then I will only bring my painting kit.

Painting 9 of mini series

For this set, I also went with a pre-painted and complimentary background colour of red and green. I enjoy playing around more when using a strong background color as opposed to standard white or lightly tinted canvases. It’s fun trying to let color peek out every now and then.

Painting 10 of mini series

There is only one more set left to show and this set I like for its sheer boldness.

On my Camera World Blog, I am doing a 6 part series with set of photographs taken in San Miguel.
It is a very vivid and bright town. The stronger sun seems to give every object, especially the painted buildings, a richer glow.

Please visit My Camera World Blog for the San Miguel de Allende photography series.

Niels Henriksen

mini series - 2011 serires strip