Shore Patterns, 11 x 14, UART 320

Underpainting, stage 1

Underpainting with alcohol

I’ve been tardy at posting!  Actually, most of my painting lately has been demos for the Rock Workshop and I didn’t want to post them in the blog.  I needed something for my email newsletter so on Saturday I worked on two paintings from our recent trip to Lewes, DE and Chestertown, MD.  I began with an 11 x 14 of a close up picture of heron and an amazing pattern of water leading up to him.

I began with an underpainting with colors I  really like. I think this could make a really interesting abstract painting!  But, I went on to reality.

I have a lot of new Ludwig “eggplant’ sticks so I couldn’t resist using one for the darks under the reeds. I developed the middle greens then the lighter tops of the grasses in light with a variety of mainly grayed Giraults.  After looking at it more, I realized it was too dark and outlined looking. So I brought more grayed greens over the dark in the far right and work at bringing both grayed greens and some of the lighter colors down.  (I had a very hard time filming this picture due to the darks and lights.)

I tried to keep the foliage above the grass fairly loose and suggestive, but tweaked it a bit too much perhaps.

The reflections came out nicely, however with vertical strokes of warm Girauts and a blue green added on top.

For the water, I used primarily Ludwigs with a variety of blue violets and turquoises.  I began the sand area with a brown Girault, then layered a grayed violet over it. I worked hard at trying to fuse the turquoise water with the more violet wet sand areas.

There were no grasses at the bottom in the photo but I decided it really needed them and used another photo as reference. This made a huge difference compositionally (my husband was happy!).

Finally, I added the heron. I had a number of shots of him.  In the this photo, he was hunkered down and facing left, so I used another photo where he was standing up and facing right.  I like the angle of the water leading to him and him going off in an angle to the right. I think it provides the needed balance.

This was a fun painting to do!  Finding unusual things in nature can be fun but you don’t want to overdo it. It must look natural and believable!

Frederick County Pastorale, 20 x 16, Uart 320

Drawing on Uart board

Underpainting, stage 1

Underpainting, stage 2

Painting in progress

I’ve been having some frustrating times with cameras!  Have been trying to get work done for an upcoming Rock Workshop but my videocamera keeps going to standby.  So I’ve started and stopped a number of paintings.  yesterday was my birthday so I decided I would do a painting for me that didn’t need a videocamera!  Last week we had a lovely drive through Frederick County and I’ve  been wanting to get started on a scene that I knew I would paint.  I took the picture from a one-lane bridge over a stream. No way you could do this on site!  I was really happy painting this–and then we lost our power during a wind storm!  But it came back and all is well and today I finished the painting.

I began with the basic shapes of mountain, land and water.  I really liked the various diagonals that define the picture and the position of the barn.  For the underpainting I used various warms to go under the yellow greens and blue greens of the water.  While I painted the background mountain in violet, I didn’t use any violet in the painting. I stuck to teals and greens and was happy with the combination.  Andthe underpainting worked nicely under the water.

I painted all the trees in dark blue and really liked the color with the background mountain and the greens.  I was concerned that I’d have too much busyness in the midground –land above stream.  I was able to simplify it enough so that I was really happy with it.  Then I was concerned that the rock with foam might be a competing center of interest, but I think the barn is strong enough.

Now I’m dealing with my Nikon camera which seems to be taking pictures too lightly. I adjusted the brightness on this and i think it’s pretty good.  I’ve found a real, live camera shop in Arlington and I think I’ll be heading there!

Had the second surgery on my left wrist last Monday and my hand is very sore and weak, but hopefully I’ll be back to some form of normal in not too many weeks!

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

Hawlings River Bend, 36″ x 24″, Lux Archival

Graphite drawing, 18″ x 12″

Drawing on Lux Archival paper

Underpainting (hard pastel and alcohol)

Painting as initially completed

On Sunday I completed a painting that was commissioned by a lovely couple in Laytonsville.  They knew of me from purchasing a small painting of rocks from District Arts Gallery in Frederick MD.  Now they wanted me to paint the stream and rocks behind their house.  It was winter.  They wanted fall. There were no fall pictures.  And they wanted it to be big!  SO–I gulped and said “sure”.

I’ve never painted anything this large so I had to think about what paper I would use.  The original request was for a 41 x 31 framed painting. But that became more flexible.  However, looking at Dakota’s website, I saw that Lux Archival comes in a 5 pack of 24 x 36, which was perfect for the painting.  The framing would be with a floating double mat and taupe frame by Larson-Juhl.

So I ordered the paper and began drawing. I had to tape four sheets of drawing paper together to get a big enough drawing of half size!  And I was using two different photographs.  One had a better image of the river, the other had tree in foreground, which I decided would work nicely.  I used the photo from Rock Creek of the red leaves that are in my December paiting.  Both reference photos were black and white.  The winter color was just too dull.

After doing the initial drawing and getting it transferred to the paper, I felt a lot better. That large sheet of white blank paper was VERY daunting!  Then I got the underpainting in and felt even better.  But I was really at a loss about the color.  They wanted blues, reds, and neutrals.  But what to do with all that ground that would be covered in fall leaves?  Their other painting is “Terra Cotta Leaves” and they loved the colors in it, so I decided to look for terra cottas. But I ended up with a lot of oranges!  And when I started working on the water, I used too much blue.  I was disappointed in the surface–it just doesn’t have the tooth of the UART or Pastel Premiere so trying  to get texture in the moving water just didn’t work.

Anyway, I sent them the image “painting as initially completed” and they came last Tuesday to look at it. I also sent this to my students and they all loved it.  But I knew it wasn’t there yet.  Greg and Mo were not sure what to expect when they came to see me, never having commissioned a painting.  But I wasn’t hurt or upset in any way!  I was just stumped as to the colors that would work.  When they came, they suggested more straw colors in the land pieces and toned down water.

So I found some grayed yellows and converted the oranges to that and I knew it was better.  Then I added some warm grayed greens to the rocks.  When I looked at the color image, I realized that all of the dark in the rocks was lichen and it was green. And there is the really large rock, which I thought was pretty ugly.  But it’s why they bought they property!!! Hmm.  So by adding the greens, I could then add more brownish greens into the water to kill the blues.  Also, in the original, I had used the same bright turquoise for three parts of the water in light and they were in competition with each other. So I toned down the water below the fallen tree and broke it up as well.

Then I added the effect of sand pebbles to the piece of land at lower right.  This was a request and I found it to be pretty easy to do.  And finally, I decided to use my fingers to blend the tops of the sky/trees together to push it back.  That worked really nicely.  A little blending in the water as well but not much.

Yesterday they came back for the final approval.  Greg asked that I show more of the rock, which I had covered in too many leaves. I got to show them how easy it is to brush off a small area and replace with other colors.  Then I added a swiggle of the light brown in the water leading to the rock in the middle of the stream.  That was it. I signed it and tomorrow it will go to the framers.

What a relief!!!

Farm Buildings in Snow, 16″ x 20″, Pastel Premiere white, medium grit

Graphite drawing, 8 x 10

Water color underpainting

It’s been a long time since I posted anything!  Today is the first “free” painting I did –something just for me.  I did one in stages as a demo for my winter classes and more recently, I did a 36″ x 24″ commissioned work.  Largest pastel I’ve ever done.  They wanted fall and all I had was winter.  Will post it when it’s complete–almost.

The other reason for not posting is a broken wrist that occured Jan. 10th with surgery and some misery 10 days later.  Will have another surgery, probably in April to remove a metal plate.  But, amazingly, I can type and play piano–it’s me left wrist–so I can also paint.

However, for today’s painting, I decided to do something different.  In searching for snow photos for my class, I came across this one, uncropped. There were a lot more trees at top and I realized that if I cropped it, I’d have something.  I also knew I didn’t want to overdo the background.

I have several mounted Pastel Premiere white boards that I bought at the last convention I attended in 2017!  No alcohol on these but they take water color really nicely and I like the grit a lot.  So I decided it was time for a “center of interest” painting.

I started with a drawing that I really enjoyed doing. I can’t imagine skipping this step in most cases.  It really gives me a feeling for the picture and where I’m going with it.  Then I did the underpainting.  I have to replenish my watercolor!  Most of it is dried up or unopenable.  But I got a lovely violet for the background and used some greens and reddish browns for the rest.  I loved the way it looked once it dried–kind of fairy-talish!  And it dries really flat, which is nice.

I began with nothing but Giraut.  The secret to working with pastel over watercolor is to use very light strokes of a pastel like Girault that isn’t too soft.  By using light applications I could add pastel indications of trees and leave most of the background unpainted over.  I also decided to leave some of the foreground and like the way it looks–at this point anyway.

For the ‘whites’ I used Ludwigs, and some of my AS tinted whites, but mainly Ludwig–blues, pink, orange, and yellow.  The tinted white I used was a pthalo green.  I’m not sure about the blue roof on the barn–it may be too blue and need to come down.  But I didn’t want everything to be so white!

In the photo both sides of the buildings are equally light but I changed it to have the light coming from the right.  I also added a piece of the roof in the left buidling, to make it clear that what is on the roof is snow.

So, I’m pretty happy with this little painting and feeling like I’m back in the swing again!

Hope you are surviving all this wintry weather. Don’t know if any of you are from Texas, but you have my sympathy. I’ve been in winter weather with no heat and light and it’s no fun. But at least the pipes didn’t burst.  So stay warm and healthy and hopefully, get your shots!

The Japanese Lantern, 20″ x 16″, UART 320

Watercolor underpainting

Painting partially completed

I decided to do another painting, given how much fun I’m having!  And indeed, I spent several lovely days working on this one, including one where it was snowing beautifully outside my windows.  I’ve let this one sit for a little while to see if i’m really done and have decided that I probably am.  But, of course, it’s not framed!

This is a house in Garret Park, MD that I’ve filmed several times in the fall.  The trim on the house is a wonderful turquoisy blue and there is a dogwood, plus a Japanese maple in front of it (which I omitted).  This gives me the perfect combination of blue green with cool reds–one of my favorites.  The photo was a horizontal that I cropped down to focus on the light in the doorway, which is set off so beautifully by the dark background and diagonal of light.

I started this having woken up one morning thinking aboud “center of interest” paintings and wanting to do something that was looser.  I initially thought about another leaf painting, but then saw this one, taken very recently. Given the strength of the center of interest, I thought maybe this would work and I decided to do a watercolor underpainting.  I was aiming for loose-ness–but….

I began with a drawing of just the house.  Then I worked over that with the watercolor.  I worked flat and kept it pretty defined. I have a really hard time with watercolor!  Can never seem to get the right colors.  But I wanted to limit it to warm reddish browns and blues.  So I did my best.  In the image, you’ll see that I began doing the painting before I realized that I hadn’t filmed it.  So, the only really loose part is the upper right corner, where I added some pastel, but left the watercolor showing. In the photo there is a large green tree there, which I knew I didn’t want.

The Japanese maple was in front of the porch on left and I decided that it was too confusing and that keeping just the dogwood branches would work better.  The foreground was brown and I assume it was a mixture of mulch and leaves.  I was really happy to have this color, rather than green grass.

I used primarily Giraults and Ludwigs for this painting, no Blue Earth.  The various turquoises came from my box of 30 Ludwig turquoises and I used the reds in my “brilliants” set for the leaves.  I was happy with the watercolor underpainting and I tried to layer the turquoise lightly, so as to let some of the warm color come through–this is best in the lower part of the building at left.

For the white stucco walls I used a combination of warm and cool Giraults, beginning with a little darker brown.

The complicated part was the railings and what was behind them.  There was a red couch of some sort on the right and I loved the way that worked, bringing the red over to the right side of the painting.

The branches and leaves were all added after I painted in the house.  I wasn’t sure how much to add. The upper branches in the photo had no leaves at all, but I needed to have some.  I used more below where the leaves are hiding the porch behind it.  (This is where the maple was so it was quite confusing).

I’m pretty happy with this but any suggestions will be gratefully received.

I forgot to mention the title.  I saw this immediately as being a “Japanese” designed light fixture but I have no idea!  It might be just kind of Arts and Crafts.  But this was the title that came to me and I decided to stick with it.

Rock Creek Gold, 20″ x 16″, UART320

Underpainting, stage 1

Underpainting, stage 2

Initial lay in of color over underpainting

Final before reassessment

I’ve just finished a painting from my visit to Rock Creek Park near Pierce’s mill when the leaves were at their peak.  I knew I wanted to do this one and originally thought I’d do it larger. But the boards didn’t come and I have a lot of 16 x 20s so went with that.  I started with a simple drawing of the basic shapes, then laid in colors of violets and browns.  I loved the underpainting before I used the alcohol and I thought about spraying it with fixative rather than melting it.  But I think the alcoholed underpainting was more useful. However, I’m thinking more about using the fixative now that I’m in my home studio and can step out to the patio to spray.

This was a really complicated painting!  There are two layers to the bank and then there is a “skirt” of floating leaves in light and shadow. On the far bank there are rocks catching the sunlight.  There is a mass of orange and yellow leaves and some sky poking through.  I wanted this to be about the reflections and the yellowest of the leaves but I got lost in the light!  I thought I was done with the painting yesterday but knew I wasn’t completely happy with it.  The little rocks seemed a distraction and I wasn’t sure the light made any sense.

I sent the painting (“final before assessment”) to my fall students for their evaluation.  I got some good comments and suggestions from them and thought about it overnight and this morning knew what to do.  First, I addressed the comment that the yellow leaves were leading the eye off the picture plane.  So I added veritcal leaves that lead back to the left.  Then I decided that if the light is coming from the back around the corner, that the lower left of the bank has to be pretty dark.  So I got rid of most of the light, leaving just a few pieces that worked with the light on the floating leaves.  Then I dulled down the rocks.  I also added more color and texture to the floating leaves to try to make it more obvious what they are.

One of the problems with the photo was that the big tree on left had no leaves over it. Looking at another photo, I realized that its base is at the lower left of the bank.  However, I had moved it back and realized that I could cover it with some leaves, which really helped to keep it from being too dominant.

Colorwise, this picture is all warm oranges, yellows and yellow greens with violets and turquoise in the sky.  My first layers were all Girault.  Then I used my “lemon” and “orange” boxes of Blue Earth pastels to develop the leaves and the reflections.  I used some finger blending in the water to push the pastel into the paper and make sure it’s texture was completely different from what is above.

So I’m pretty happy with this!  I’m not sure if I’ll do more painting before Christmas so I’ll take this opportunity to wish you all a Happy Hanukkah and a Merry Christmas–knowing that we’ll be celebrating more quietly than usual.