red coat (new)

Acrylic on canvas, 48’x36’

$5,750

Park

Acrylic on canvas, 30’x30’

$5,750

celeste (NEW)

Acrylic on canvas, 30’x30’

$5,750

Yellow Tree

Acrylic on canvas, 30’x40’

$7,600

Steps

Acrylic on canvas, 30’x30’

$8,750

Bamboo

Acrylic on canvas, 30’x30’

$5,750

Twisty Road

Acrylic on canvas, 16’x20’

$1,950

Roses

Acrylic on canvas, 30’x24’

$5,750

Therapy

Acrylic on canvas, 12’x16’

$1,250

5

Acrylic on canvas, 16’x20’

$2,250

Picnic

Acrylic on canvas, 20’x20’

$5,750

how-to

From bottom-to-top, this series shows how I paint a picture.

To help the final colors be the colors they want to be, I lay in lots of other colors underneath.

Go out and look at a tree. Are those leaves really just “green?” I’m always surprised by how much red is hiding in there, especially in the edges and shadows.

Stare at the “blue” sky for a while. Long enough for your eyes to relax and un-focus a bit. See all the other colors behind the blue? Pink, green, mauve; they’re all there. Cyan just talks louder.

And shadows. They complement of the color of the light shining on the object that casts them. Which is why in San Francisco’s uniquely Naples Yellow daylight shadows are so purple.

I don’t paint colors as they are, but as they want to be.

Dan Roam is the San Francisco-based author of six international bestselling books on visual storytelling which have been translated into 31 languages. "The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems with Pictures" was named by Fast Company, The London Times, and BusinessWeek as 'Creativity Book of the Year.' As a consultant, Dan has helped leaders at Google, Microsoft, Snowflake, Boeing, Gap, IBM, the US Navy, and the White House solve complex problems with simple pictures. Dan and his whiteboard have been guests on CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, Fox, and NPR.