Boats at Twilight, 16 x 20, Pastel Premiere, white

Underpainting, stage 1

Underpainting with odorless mineral spirits

It’s been awhile!  I focused on my Rock Workshop during late May and early June and I was away in New England and the Finger Lakes for two weeks.  Had lovely weather and it was wonderful to see Mattapoisett, my sister, and some of Cape Cod and southern Maine.  AND–when I got home I learned that I’ve sold 3 16 x 20 paintings in Jud Hartmann’s gallery in Blue Hill, Maine.  Two will be sold without the frames, so I needed to do a new painting.  I decided to do this picture from early evening in Mattapoisett. The only 16 x 20 boards I have currently are the Pastel Premiere white, whose grit I’m not happy with!  (I didn’t order right)

For the underpainting, I decided to forget watercolor and use hard pastel with something other than alcohol.  I used odorless mineral spirits and really loved it!  I could really move the pigment around with the brush as it didn’t dry right away.  You can see the results–quite lovely I think!

There were several challenges with the photo.  The house was under construction and covered in white paper and there  no windows showing on the front!  So I had to make that up, including the effect that the brigh sunlight would have on them.  Secondly, there was a shadow that pointed to the small bush in the middle of the picture (its in the underpainting).  At first I thought was being cast by the bush, but the light was coming from the right. So it must have been a pole. Anyway, I decided I’d better leave it out.  Also, there was more rigging for the house construction hehind the boats and it was a bright orange.  Lovely, but I had to eliminate that as well!

I used soft Blue Earth greens for the tree and its shadowed lawn.  For the house in shadow, I used several blue green Giraults, then bright yellows for the sunlit side.  I thought the fence would be difficult, but it wasn’t. I put some color in first and used a very soft, brighter yellow Schmincke and quickly drew in the lines.  Worked great.  Added a few pieces of green into the cracks afterwards.

The boats were more of a challenge, as they were hard to see.  And I had the orange boat pretty bright, then decided to tame it down.  I was debating whether the center of interest should be the boats or the area of fence, tree, bush in sunlight.  Decided on the latter, but the boats are pretty important as well — and they are the title!  I had a rock between the boats and the clump of rosa rugosa on the left and took it out, replacing it with blue water. I loved the shape and simplicity that resulted (my husband’s suggestion!).

The most difficult part was the foreground.  There was a bare area and tall grasses in the sun.  I thought first of getting rid of the bare part, but that left too much green.  So after some experimentation, I went with what was in photo and liked it.  The brown adds some contrast and an interesting shape, and it’s close in value to the shaded greens.

So it’s good to be back to painting again. And now, I’m focusing this summer’s “Summer Challenges” classes that I’ll be giving each Monday via zoom to 20+ people.  Hope to do lots of painting and piano playing!  Have a lovely July 4th holiday.

Jean