Autumn in the Catoctins, 20″ x 16″, UART 320

Underpainting, stage 1

Underpainting, stage 2

Top completed (almost)

Initial rough in of color in the bottom

I’ve clearly been inspired to paint this week!  I just spent the day doing this painting from one of our first fall trips in mid Oct. to the Catoctin Mts. in Maryland.  There wasn’t a lot of foliage at the time, but we found a field with wonderful yellow green plants and light streaming through highlighting a few of them.  I’ve been wanting to do it for some weeks now.

I took a lot of pictures, both horizontal and vertical and settled on this one, as it emphasizes the large green tree, whose shape I really liked.   It also shows a lot of the background field and distant hills.

To begin with, I drew one line at the base of the trees, and then decided to start immediately with hard pastel.  I started with “bottle green” for the leaves of the green tree, then added red violet over it (whish just created mud with the alcohol!). It was kind of nice being able to skip the drawing stage and go right to the underpainting!  I used primarily cool under warm, etc. but not completely.  The cool violet really worked nicely in the shadowed greens. But I didn’t like the reddish color in the foreground and had to work to cover it all up. I saw a lot of orange under the yellow greens and that worked pretty well.

Colorwise, I was concerned that the less important tree on the right is the one with the fall colors.  But I think it’s the yellow greens that really dominate in the painting.  I brought some oranges into the base of them in the foreground and a few in the large green tree as well.

My first concern was to capture the shape of the branches in the green tree and its sky holes.  For the branches, I started with a dark blue, then a red violet then finally just went to dark brown.  It worked fine.  I used two blue violet Ludwigs in the sky initially, then lightly brushed aqua over the blue to warm it up in the center between the trees. I tried to keep the strokes loose in both trees.

The background hills and trees were kind of a challenge. I used a cool blue for the hills, with hints of very light orange in them and a variety of blues and browns to represent the trees.  For the field I began with a variety of greens and yellow greens, then put some pink over it to keep it form being too bright.

I used three values of blue green Giraults, along with a little piece of soft darker blue green in the grasses.  For the yellow green plants, I began with Girault and then Blue Earth.  I decided to bring the part in left front down close to the bottom as a compositional element to lead the eye into the picture.  I like the way the diagonal of light and shaded grasses leads the eye to the ravine and then to the distant field.

This was a pretty easy picture in that I really didn’t have to change anything much!  A pleasant change from the red leaves. I very much enjoyed spending the day reliving a pleasant memory and tried to pretend I was there painting it on site.  However, Rossini was playing on the opera and that gave me a little added energy!

Underpainting, stage 1

Underpainting after alcohol

Rock Creek Reds, 18″ x 24″, UART 320

I’ve been working on my second tree painting since before Thanksgiving and this was was a lot more difficult than the one from Swain’s Lock.  There was no sky!  And there were lots of trees and limbs, all in very neutral colors.  But there was a lovely arc of red leaves that began in the upper left and stretched across and down to the lower right.  This really excited me and I knew I wanted to do something with it.  But what???

My first concern was the trees and the lack of sky.  In the photo, you can make out the creek at the bottom and lots of brush.  I thought perhaps to make it higher up where there could be some light coming through the trees.  The major thing was to figure out which trees to include and what values they would be.  I drew them in and settled on a group on the left, with two verticals on the right and a strong diagonal (in the photo).  Further along, I added several small twiggy bushes in the middle and on the right.  But I wanted to keep it fairly simple and more abstract. I wasn’t aiming for reality!

As you can see, the underpainting looks like something completely different!  I knew the leaves would be red, but that was about all!  And when I applied the alcohol it all got very dim and kind of Asian looking!

Colors were the next challenge. My initial thoughts were red, dark purples (in the trees) and neutrals.  But when I tried apply various violets to the background and trees, I found that the red in them was too close to the reds of the leaves and wouldn’t rovide adequate contrast.  So I decided on dark blues instead, then, somehow, found myself using some turquoises as well, which really exctied me!  Not them in the tree on left behind the dark blue tree.  So I used blues, turquoise, reds, and various browns and neutrals.

Then I tried to put in some blue to indicate sky holes, to open things up.  It was a blue violet and it just didn’t work at all.  So I brushed it off and decided to go with a very abstract background consisting of various browns, with some blues and aquas thrown in here and there.  One of the things I did to begin with was to use various soft pastels to apply color to the background, then took a really hard pieces of Caran d’ache brown and burnished it, so it would lay flat and go back. That worked pretty well.

I roughed in the leaves to begin with with a dark cool red Blue Earth pastel.  When I started painting them, I chose some purer reds and a few red oranges.  I worked on it through yesterday with those.  But I felt it was really missing something. So today I chose some lighter pinks and oranges and one really white-pink and this made a huge difference. Then I took a nice, rich red, and went over most of the dark leaves with that, giving most of them more chroma and interest.

I couldn’t resist using more turquoise and used small pieces of a pretty bright Ludwig in the tree trunks.

So I’ve signed it. But I’m not sure it’s completely done yet.  But it’s a lot closer t where I wanted it to be.  Any thoughts will be gratefully received!

Autumn Oranges, Swain’s Lock, 18″ x 24″, UART 320

Underpainting

Orange branches lightly noted

Background trees and water being added

I’m on vacation!  I have a week off before my last week of zoom classes and I’m spending a good part of it painting. Most of what I’ve done this fall has been for the classes and now it’s time to paint for myself!  We’ve had a beautiful fall and I’ve had several lovely walks on the Canal and in Rock Creek Park.  I started taking horizontal pictures of varying colored leaves flowing across the picture and decided to try something different: horizontals.  So here is the first and maybe the best of the photos.  It’s from Swain’s Lock on the C&O Canal where the towpath opens up to views of the river and various small islands. It was a glorious walk!

But it was a difficult painting!  There are many layers and complexities but the two dominant beach trees, along with smaller twisting trees gave a basis to the composition.  I also liked the triangular shape of the water.  For the underpainting I used some of my favorite Caran d’ache hard pastel colors–a lovely blue and green in the trees and the olive browns in the backgroud, with yellow green in water and sky.  I loved this!  Then I decided to take one orange pastel and mark in the shapes of the branches.  I thought about stopping at this point!  But you know that’s not me!  It really reminded me of something one of the Canadian Group of Seven might have done.  Looking at this underpainting really inspires me to do more with these colors!

Anyway, I began with the background trees and water, using neutral and soft violet Giraults to provide a very light layer of color.  I used a Ludwig blue green for the water, with several darker ones around the tree on the right.  Then I hit the Blue Earth pastels.  The trees are a combination of violets and neutrals from the “Nearly Neutral” box.  But I did add some very dark Ludwig (maybe it’s Eggplant) into the trunks to give them more weight.  I used my boxes of orange, violet, and earth green Blue Earths, along with various other soft pastels to creat the leaves and greenery.

I had to add more to the orange branches to make the stand out from the business on the right.  There was a line of bright yellow leaves on the right which I put in at first and then toned down, deciding that it detracted from the oranges.  For the leaves at right, I used a combination of orangey browns with a warm green and grayed yellow green on top.  There is also a dark red in some places.

I worked from my IPAD mounted on a tripod that I got for teaching. It works really nicely and keeps me from print the color image–which would be flatter.  I do print the black and white to aid in the initial drawing, however.

Not sure what I’ll tackle next but if I’ll wish you all a happy AND SAFE Thanksgiving this year.  Not the time for family gatherings, sadly.  But we still have much to be thankful for.  I’m particularly thankful for the 21 wonderful students who took my classes this fall and went through all the technological challenges with me so good naturedly! We had a wonderful time together.   I’ll be teaching again in the winter and welcome people from anywhere!  I currently have a friend from Massachusetts in my classes.  As long as you can deal with the time zone, you are welcome!  If you are interested, write to me at; jeanhirons48@gmail.com.

Autumn Complements, 14″ x 11″, UART 320

Underpainting, stage 1

Underpainting, stage 2

I actually had time to do a painting today that was not for my class!  I’ve been really busy doing demos and filming them, as well as paint alongs of still life.  Haven’t had any time to just paint what I want to paint!  But that is changing.

Several weeks ago we took a ride into the country and then to Frederick, MD, where I’m in the District Arts Gallery.  It was a beautiful day and I took a number of pictures.  This one caught my eye because of the blue green door and the red orange tree: complements!

So to begin with, i have to tell you that the color in the photo just isn’t right.  I’ve tried both camera and cell phone but can’t get the right color of the door and post.  It’s more of a peacock blue green, whereas the picture makes it look straight blue.  I thought the color of the door was really great, along with the red oranges of the tree, and the light hitting the front of a restaurant.  Then there is the shadow of the tree being cast on the wall at right.  It’s quite a complex but intriguing picture.

I used a dark turquoise for the sky–it was the only thing bright enough.  I used dark blues primarily for the porch of the restaurant, then added turquoise light onto it.  I always like this part!

The green underpainting for the right wall worked really nicely.  I used a dull grayed yellow on tip and let some of it show through.  I then added the shadow on top.  It was fine.

For the side walk I used a combination of cool and warm reds with some blues and blue greens mixed into it to vary the value and temperature.  The last thing was to add the fallen leaves and that was easy too.  I’m disappointed that I can’t seem to capture the exact color of the door but I”m happy that I’ve finally done this painting that I’ve been thinking about.

I’m now waiting for some UART boards from Dakota and plan to do a series of horizontal trees with leaf patterns.  Excited about those!