Gull on Rocks, 14″ x 11″, Uart 320

Original photo image

Printed photo image

Today we finished filming the second of two videos for this small painting.  The first video is the underpainting. Today’s is the painting itself.  Unfortunately, half way through, the camera ran out of room so we lost the part on painting the rocks!  However, I still think it’s pretty good.  Because I did this as a video, I don’t have all the images for the underpainting, but they’ll be on youtube in a week or so.

I took this picture in 2018 when John and I were visiting Massachusetts. This is on the Slocum River in N. Dartmouth in a nature preserve where we walked with my friend Sarah Brown.  I’ve always like the compostion but the dull and dark grays and greens discouraged me from doing it.  However, it seemed like a good subject for a demo so I lightened the picture a little and printed it out.  The first photo is the lightened version. The second is a picture of my picture!  I forgot that my new Epson print lightens everything when it prints.  As a result, I got a really light image!  But also a much more colorful one.  In the printed picture I could see violets and magentas and all sorts of colors that weren’t orginally visible.  So I was much more inspired to paint it.

I decided that rather than being an all green picture, this would be a green-violet-orange triad.  I figured that the seaweed along the rocks could be more orange than it appeared and would add some nice balance to the picture.  In the underpainting, I used mainly greens, violets and browns, with a nice reddish orangy brown in the water behind the bird.

I kept the upper half very abstract, using just violets and greens, smooshed together.  For the rocks I used violets, greens, warm neutrals, and some reddish colors as well.  The seaweed area was the most challenging, primarily because the color in the photo were so dull and light.  I began it with a Roche warm yellow orange that blocked in the area beautifully.  I added greens and violets on top and some darker hints of violet below.  Im happy with the results.

For the water, I used two shades of green then two shades of lighter green for the light on the ripples.  Rather than following the pattern in the photo, I used an arcing pattern from lower right over to submerged rock and then to the upper right towards the bird.

I really enjoyed doing this painting, even though I had initial qualms of doing it for “the world”–not that that many people will view it, of course–but, it will be out there!

Not sure when it will be published but hopefully during the first week or July.

Happy Fourth.  Don’t go to large parties. Stay safe. Stay sane!!!

Westport Farm, 16″ x 20″, UART 320

Underpainting, stage 1

Underpainting with alcohol

I’ve been searching through my files of pictures from Mattapoisett and the towns around there.  One of my favorite places is Westport, MA.  It’s an old town of rolling farmland and old farmhouses that hasnt’ changed a whole lot.  I found this picture of light and shadow and decided I really wanted to paint it.  It’s a pretty cool picture overall so I knew I wanted to start with a warm underpainting and I had a good time with it. Kind of wild! Used the same greens from the last pianting and liked them.

I wanted the sky to be soft and cool at the left, warm at the right.  The soft oranges and yellows that represent light kind of look like clouds or fog, but that’s OK.  Could be sunlit fog–it’s near the water.

The tree was not easy.  I used nothing but soft pastels in it (no Giraults).  I started with some deep blue in the shadows but it stood out too much and I later replaced it with red violet and green.  The garage is done with a little warmer violet, while the house is all blues. I used a warm orange brown Girault to add the sense of peeling paint in some areas, which was quite visible in the photo.

The picture is a challenge due to the contrast of light and shadow.  The green grasses in front of the house are really dark. I’ve tried to indicate some stones set into the grass that would have been an entry to the door at one time. I doubt that it’s used much now.  I added some red violet to the green where it meets the yellow green.

I wasn’t sure what I was going to do about the fence but I knew I had to put something in. In the end, I chose to put it in as a I saw it with the two levels of vertical pieces.  Kind of interesting!

I really enjoyed doing the painting and could picture being there on the road to Westport Harbor. I took the picture after a lovely time painting down by the water with friends Sarah Brown and Janet Gendreau.

I hope you are staying well and enjoying our lovely weather before it gets too hot.

Not sure what’s up next!

Mattapoisett Blues, 16″ x 20″, UART 320

Underpainting, initial colors

Underpainting, more color added

Underpainting with alcohol

Painting in process

Painting with too much yellow!

I finally got to paint this past week.  It’s been awhile. I’ve been focused on art and music videos!  TOO MUCH!!!  My last art video is called “Color Choices for a Useful Underpainting”.  It’s currently being edited by my friend,Helen Wood.  It will be a lot nicer than the others I’ve produced so far. We are both learning a lot.

So one of the photos I used in the video is a picture of Mattapoisett in spring of 2018.  I loved the blue mail box, along with the blue shutters and the boats in the blue water.  But it was never the perfect composition and that’s why I hadn’t painted it (I think I’m getting desparate!).  There is a big tree in the photo, right behind the mail box and the forsythia is all bare brown bushes.  I knew when I took the photo that it had possibilities.  But I wasn’t sure what to do with the tree. In my sketch, I tried moving it to the front of the house, nearer the harbor.  I originally drew it that way on the board, but decided it was too busy.  Then I thought I’d make it a lot smaller. You’ll see it in the underpainting.  I hated it!  Thank goodness we can brush off pastel.

I gave a lot of thought to this painting and the mood I wanted to create. I wanted it to have a soft, impressionist look and I chose to use smaller strokes of color.  But I also realized that without the trees, it had more of a bare, stark appearance that reminded me of Hopper–never a bad thing!  When I decided to take out the big tree, my original plan was to add a tree branch coming over the roof from the left to break it up. But I soon realized that I didn’t want anything there at all. Color variation would be enough.

So, the color choices. In the video, I say that there are only three color choices:  opposites on the color wheel (complements and near complements), colors on the same side (analogous), and local color.  And I came up with some new terminology of assessing your subject matter for “challenges” and “possibilities.”  Or, what parts will be difficult to paint, which parts are rather boring but easier to paint.  Perhaps using analogous or local color in the challenging areas will work better, while large boring areas can benefit from opposite colors.   So, in this underpainting I actually used them all.  And I also decided that because I wanted a soft look that I didn’t want a lot of stark color (except that orange!) in the underpainting and I added more colors to the initial layer.

The challenging areas were the sky (when I though there would be a tree) and the bushes.  For the sky, I used a warm, medium green and a lighter yellow green. I’ve never used the medium warm green before but it worked really nicely.  Where it showed through it was fine.  For the the bushes, I decided to use the color that I saw in the photo of the bare branches–so I was using the local color, knowing that I’d be putting yellow on over it. I used several of the Caran d’ache olive browns.  The roof and the road were “possibilties”–rather boring areas.  I chose to use cool blue with some red added to it for the roof, and a combination of cool colors for the road, knowing it would end up warm.  For the mail box, I used the actual complement and used other oranges in the grasses.  I was pleased with my choices on this one and thought they enabled me to do the painting quite nicely.

So that was the easy part!  Those bushes were a real problem.  Having chopped down the tree, I had more room for forsythia and it became a large yellow blob with too much orange in it.  I sent the image to my students for comments and they agreed with me.  After reading one comment I knew what I’d do–break up the group of bushes with another walkway nearer the front. This enabled me to add more darks and shaping to the bushes and I also used a lot more yellow greens in them to tone down the orange.

I decided to add the telephone poll and wires and am glad I did.  It adds a little more interest to the background.  I made up the shadows of the trees on the road but not the large dark shadow of a house.

Back to my original plan to paint it more impressionistically. I paid alot of attention to this in the sky and the house.  For the roof, I used quite a few colors, combining oranges and reds and adding some blue green on in places to give it more interest.  For the house itself, I combined complements to create the shadows and kept the strokes and edges loose.  I’m happy with this approach and will use it in my next painting of Mattapoisett.  I’m visiting virtually this year!