Sepowet Pastorale #1, Reeves BFK with toned AS primer
The weather here is dreadful and I’m spending time in my cool studio. Now that the sunset pictures are out of my system, I can play with the images from Tiverton, RI–an area called Sepowet. This has always been a magical place for me because of the beautiful fields, stone walls and elm trees against the backdrop of Narragansett Bay. I decided to experiment with using broken color instead of the painterly color that I usually use. I bought three sheets of Reeves BFK printmaking paper (white) and applied to coats of Art Spectrum Liquid primer, toned with burnt sienna liquid acrylic. I used a 1″ brush and was careful not to leave thick areas and even apply it. I find that hard pastels don’t work very well on this surface, so I used soft pastels–mainly Terry Ludwigs and Schminckes and a few Giraults. I worked from only a black and white photo. Since there is foliage, it has to be summer and there has to be green, but I didn’t want it to be as green as in the photo. (I haven’t looked at the original color photo since I did it!) In addition to the greens, I wanted to add warmer pinks, peaches, and red violets. The challenge is not to turn everything grey! The sky was overcast on this day so I decided to keep away from real blues. The color of the water is primarily a very light aqua. For the background land mass, I used a Ludwig blue violet, then put lighter violet and orange over it. The complement grayed it but also gives it some life, when seen close up. In the foreground, I applied violets, warm grayed reds and greens. I kept the colors pretty subdued, then applied a little brighter green to the foliage in the foreground and on the island. I had a really good time doing this and will try using this approach for other pictures from the area. I’ve also ordered 5 16 x20 ProArt UART 500 boards and might try doing the same picture on it using the color photo to see what might happen. (This is a 16 x 20). But I really love working from the black and white and learning to “see” my own color within it. This is what I want to teach in workshops.
Lovely composition. It only dawned on me after reading your text that I could click on the image and it then filled my screen – with subtle colour. What a smart idea to work from black and white and bring it to colour. No excuse for the wrong tonal values. Gorgeous mauves and lilacs. Keep posting! (And hopefully the weather will come right soon. Isn’t it supposed to be summer?!? It’s 86 degs F and dead-pan grey here in the south of France. Not inspiring either).
Fiona–I’m glad to know that you can see the image in a larger format. These are high res images I’m taking so there should be a lot of data there. Thanks for the encouragement. The sky just turned blue here and I went for a swim–like swimming in bathwater. Storms expected later on. I imagine it’s pretty hot in southern France–but then, you DO have all that great food!!!
I can’t thank you enough for sharing this blog. I live in the southern area of the Santa Clara Valley in CA. In the very early morning the Santa Cruz mountains to the west are shrouded in fog, the sky is a layer of clouds and the foliage that is everywhere takes on a coloration which echoes the sky and the fog. I found your color pastel advise to be most helpful in capturing that early morning atmosphere which I find enchanting because by 10AM the Sun is ablaze and the nuances of the early morning coloration is lost. Thank you.
Marie–I’ve been in California and I know what you are referring to. The background here is really just the island that Newport is on, but it rises up and creates a lovely backdrop. I left out all the little white houses! I’m glad that you like the picture. I think it has a dreamy quality to it that I quite like. My first real “love” in pastel was the work of Duane Wakeham, from San Francisco, who paints such beautiful landscapes of northern California. He does a lot more with the composition and I’m going to have to do this too. I’ve tried a number of times to do what he does, always unsuccessfully. This is the closest I’ve come and I intend to continue with this to see where it takes me.