Potomac Gold, 24″ x 20″ , UART 320 board

Underpainting with alcohol

Painting as it was in late October

Today I finished the painting I was working on last fall when I broke my arm!  I thought it would take a lot more time but I decided I was pretty happy with it and called it quits.  What was really interesting about the painting was that I learned how to do negative painting.  This happened first in the sky.  The dark green branches were too thick as I originally laid them in so I used the blue pastel I’d used for the sky and started “sculpting” them.  It was really fun and resulted in leaf forms.  Today I did it again with the dark green bush at lower left.  I put in the darks and laid several colors on over, then the branches that are standing out.  The whole shape was too dark and massive. So I used the blue of the water to cut it back, allowing more greens to become little branches.   This is really fun!

I simplified this picture, particularly at the bottom. There were a lot more rocks and sandy patches.  I first added them in, then decided they were a distraction and removed them. I decided to concentrate on the colors and light and reflections in the water.  I”m glad I did as I think it works.

I had to make up the bottom right as it wasn’t like this. No opening of sand as I have added, but I think it’s an important entry into the picture.

I wanted the yellow greens of the tree to be the primary focus.  But the blues in the water are pretty strong.  I added a thin layer of orange Girault over it to try to gray it a bit. Not sure that worked but there’s so much orange in the upper left that it made sense to have more in the water.  I also added a piece of light on the sand at the edge of the water and the tree branch seems to be pointing to it.  So I like this touch.

It’s kind of hard to paint brilliant autumn in drab January!  I”m certainly not inspired by what i”m seeing outside.  But I was happy to finally finish this painting after it sat in my studio for two lonely months!

Marsh commissioned painting, 12 x 16, UART 320

Photo reference

Hello Friends.  I haven’t posted anything since October because I haven’t been able to paint since breaking my right arm in early November.  This is getting to be a real drag and hopefully, I”ll be taking some new medication and trying hard to avoid falls. But, fortunately, I can now drive to my studio and I can paint.  A good friend from my library days, who now lives in South Carolina, sent me this image and asked if I could paint it.  I said yes, of course, but that was in December.  I was able to do some drawings and played with the composition.  But in the end, I kept it pretty close to what was there.  However, I decided to add more color and make it more impressionistic.  The image of the painting is lighter than the original, but it shows the many strokes of color in the sky.

After working on the harder, mounted home-made surfaces that I’ve been playing with, doing this painting was sheer joy!  I started the sky with a blue green, then added pieces of blue violet over, keeping the overall warm green color. Then, underneath the clouds, I added pieces of light yellowy orange to reflect the marsh in sulight below.  I loved the effect of this and plan to keep working on this approach in future paintings.

The marsh in the picture, as you can see, is very dark. There must be clouds overhead that don’t show.  I found it quite boring.  But I started it dark with violets, and deep red browns, then gradually added warmed colors in. Again, the painting is darker and not as bright and the owner said she really loves it.  So, I was very thankful to have a lovely, small, and relatively easy subject to get me back into painting again.

I start teaching on Mondays and Wednesdays, both in person and on zoom.  Not many students this winter–everyone seems to want a break. But that’s OK as I want more time to experiment myself.  I’m about done with the paintings for my show in March which I’m calling “Intuitive Landscape.” (For those in the area, it’s at Artists and Makers on Parklawn Drive and the opening is Friday, March 3rd, 5-9.) I will post the last painting when it is complete. I went through color struggles with it that I’ll share.  It’s getting much better!  But I’m tired of the hard surface and I want to return to sanded paper. I really enjoyed working on the Orkney painting, the last one I posted in October, which was painted on Lux Archival. I”m thinking of investing in more of that paper as it is quite nice and doesn’t need mounting.  It will be easier to store and not weigh as much.  And I can play with more toning with inks, etc.

I hope that you are getting a good start to the year–unless you are in California or buried in Buffalo!  I really feel for the people out West and what they are going through.  Here it is just cold and dreary and I plan to paint more from my imagination, if that is possible!  Best wishes.

Jean