Rock Study in Orange and Violet, 14″ x 11″, UART 320
A very cold and windy day today so I chose to spend in the studio. I revised one picture and completed another. This one is on the 320 UART and I really wanted to do it, but have been distracted with December events! I had drawn in the composition with graphite and decided to just work directly on the picture with no underpainting. I used a combination of light violet, green and brownish green hard pastels, along with some Giraults. I intended to just start with these, but I realized that this was the painting! I really didn’t want to use softer pastels on the rocks, but I used Schminckes in the orange bush to make it come alive. In the photo there was an orange tuft of grass to the left of the little bush. I put it in, then took it out and moved it to the upper right. It was a real distraction next to the bush. What I loveded about the composition was the way all of the dark crevices in the rocks lead to the bush! And the shadow of the branch at righ is also leading to it. AND–the bush is not right in the middle!
I worked quite slowly and detailed on on the top, but the darker bottom water reflections went fairly quickly. I started with the grayed violets that I saw in the photo, then brushed a more colorful violet over it and the painting came alive!
I began the painting with a hard dark blue NuPastel, putting in all of the dark lines/crevices. It gave me a sense of the flow of the picture. Not sure about the serpentine shape at right but I didn’t want to make too many changes because of the reflections.
I was really happy with this picture, in its color, the balance of dark and light, and the positioning of the bush and the way it stands out.
That’s it for rocks for awhile! Now on to snow or rain or something different!
Happy holidays to all of you. We will be driving to Mass. on Wed. and returning a week later. It’s nice that Christmas and Channukah coincide this year. If you are in the DC area, I strongly recommend visiting the newly re-opened East Wing of the National Gallery. Went there yesterday and saw the wonderful blue rooster on the roof terrace between the two new towers. It’s really great, as are the two galleries on the first floor.