A Rock Wall by the Sea, 20 x 24, UART 320

Underpainting step 1

Revised underpainting and drawing of rocks with charcoal

I’m going to be giving a Rock Workshop via Zoom in June so I’ve been looking through my photos of New England–knowing there are lots of rocks there!  And I found a wonderful photo from Westport, Mass. taken on one of the many trips to the Bay Side restaurant with my mother.  I loved the photo immediately and was surprised I had never done anything with it.

My first decision was not to draw the rocks until I had done the underpainting as I didn’t want to lose them all with the alcohol.  But I used a combination of blue and brown that turned gray and had no life or good value.  So later, as you can see, when I got to that part, I used a purple NuPastel and went over it and added alcohol.  Then I drew in the rocks with charcoal. It worked really nicely and I could easily revise the charcoal when I needed to.

The first challenge was the sky (which doesn’t show really well in this photo).  There were no clouds in the photo, completely blue but light and a little hazy.  I started with that by using a combination of blue (Great American beacon in a lighter value), blue violet and blue green Ludwigs.  I decided to add a layer of light clouds above the horizon and left it for later.  At the end, I consulted with my husband and he thought some clouds would be useful.  I have a nice reference photo of some cirrus and cumulous clouds in the upper right of the photo and decided to use that.  I was really happy with the way they turned out.  It’s too large an area to leave with nothing of interest.

My second challenge was the band of greenery and trees behind the trees. You’ll see i the early stages that I have some taller bushes and dark trees.  I followed the photo too much and at the end took them all out.  The simplification was much better.  I have three small houses in the distance which are also a simplifcation. There were more and they are all on stilts!  I don’t like the look, so I leave them out.

For the field, I used three values of a soft grayed yellow ochre (Schmincke perhaps), then I added a very light whited Blue Earth green on top of that.  I really liked the effect and it helped tie the field to the greens in the background and foreground.

When doing the tree, I began with violets and dark green and used mainly Blue Earth greens, which worked nicely.  But then I took a couple of NuPastels and added in very fine limbs that I liked a lot.

And then there was the rocks!  The new purple underpainting was great.  I was able to scumble soft pastels over it and leave some showing.  I also began with a Ludwig eggplant for the crevices, eventually adding a dark blue gray Roche on top.  I used a variety of orange-browns, grayed greens, blues and blue violets and some turquoise in various shades.  As I got further to the right, I tried to keep the edges softer and less distinct.  This is hard because they are all the same in the photo, but something we have to remember.

Finally, I added a red-winged blackbird to one of the raised rocks, as they are plentiful there, though not in the photo.

This was a really happy painting to work on!  And–I’ve just made reservations to go to New England in June.  I really miss the beautiful countryside of the South Coast, as well as my family and friends.

Summer on the Charente, 16″ x 12″, UART 320

Underpainting, hard pastel and alcohol

Beginning of demo

This painting was done as a demonstration on trees and water reflections for my zoom classes (winter 2021).  It ended up being more about the trees as the camera decided to give out during the reflections portion!  Ah well.  I did the underpainting and all but two of the trees prior to the demo as I didn’t want to rush.  This worked out well.  I had fun with the colors of the underpainting and there are small pieces showing through when you see the painting “in person”.

I spent a lot of time on the tall tree and went back later for more corrections.  The trees are completely Girault, with the exception of one light whitish green Blue Earth pastel that I added to the large yellow willow.  I was concerned it might look too different, but it worked really nicely.

The reflections provded to be tricky, particularly getting them in the right place.  At first the reflection of small light bush on left was too low and it had to be raised.  There weren’t any ripples in the water, but there was light streaming over it from the right which nicely presented the effect of water reflections.

The small house and orange roof were a nice touch but presented isolated color, so I added a small amount of orange to the smaller light bush at left and to its reflection.  Hard to see but it really makes a difference when I look at the painting.   Just seems more balanced.

For the sky, I used two values of light Ludwig turquoise along with a light orange for clouds.  For the water, I used a combination of Art Spectrum “Beacon”–a real blue, with Ludwig blue violets and blue greens of the same value.  Worked really nicely to give interest and a little vibration.

A Spring Walk, 12″ x 16″, UART 320 board

Watercolor underpainting

Laying in value shapes

I decided to do another high horizon watercolor underpainting picture from a photo taken years ago.  I envisioned doing something similar to what I did witht the Rock Creek bridge painting. I really loved the white house in the woods, the arc of the reddish bridge, and the saturated patch of yellow flowers.

I succeeded in keeping the background fairly suggestive, but the rest of my idea didn’t work.  I spent a lot of time on the underpainting, going back over it many times. But it was still light AND I didn’t have a good sense of the compostion. I ended up using a violet to block in areas of dark and then had to go over them with fairly heavy applications of pastel.  But, somehow, a path developed, and I added some rocks, and I liked the final result.

Regardless of not doing what I had hoped to do, it was lovely to paint so much green now during the BROWN season!  But the green will be here soon enough.

Detail of brush at left

Bridge Over Rock Creek, 12″ x 16″, Wallis white

Here’s another painting done with a watercolor underpainting.  These kind of woodland scenes in fall and spring seem perfect for this approach.  Last week I bought a lot of new water color tubes and I’ve been waiting for my paper to arrive from Dakota.  While in my public studio yesterday, I found a mounted piece of 12 x 18 Wallis museum grade white!!!  Amazing.  So I brought it home with high hopes.

I decided to do a 12 x 16 but kind of wish I’d used the entire 18″.  The really strong diagonal of light and shadow ended up smack in the middle.  But my husband said it was OK–so!!!!

Anyway,  I put a lot of work into the underpainting, adding a number of new layers over the initial ones as they faded.  I tried to remember all those demos by Richard McKinley that so inspired me.

For this painting, I used a wide variety of pastels. And of note, I used a lot of Unisons from my large Heilmann box that have become little balls! (Once you start using them, the edges wear off and they become pretty round.)  But they have such lovely odd and grayed colors. The colors in the rocks and bridge are Unisons, along with the really grayed pastels from the lemon Blue Earth set.  The background and initial layers were all Girault.  And I used a lot of hard pastels for the tiny branches and vines. The leaves are all very soft greens.  It was fun using all of my pastels in different ways.

I left most of the foreground unpainted, as you can see, with a few leaves on top and a slight indication of dirt and grass.

I loved doing this painting. And now my 8-ply Pastel Premiere white boards are here and I have another painting lined up. I want to do a series of fall and spring paintings that include smaller, more detailed pieces of greenery but not the barrenness of winter or the overkill of summer!  Looking forward to spring!!!

Jean