Taos Sunset #1, 24 x 18, Wallis Museum grade
OK, I ‘m hoping the frog is gone! I’m happy now with the shape of the clouds. This was my first painting on white Wallis in some time. I bought it mounted from Dakota and have two more, so they are perfect for the series of three sunsets I want to do. I started with charcoal and wash with this, then used watercolor. This was NOT successful. Too light. I didn’t want to use hard pastel as I don’t have the right colors, and I couldn’t use alcohol because it is Wallis. I should have done hard pastel and water or mineral spirits for the bottom as the little white dots drove me crazy. This was one of the first images I shot, so not as much color in the clouds. The next two will have more oranges and pinks. Those who have studied with me know that I tend to avoid sunsets as being too cliched. And I really disliked a lot of the gaudy bright red/orange sunset paintings that I saw on Canyon Road in Santa Fe. But these pictures of the coulds reflecting the sunset really captured me and I couldn’t wait to get home and work with them. For this painting, I primarily used my two boxes of blue/cerulean Blue Earth pastels. The variety of grays is wonderful for clouds. I tried to maintain a color palette by using red violet, cool grayed greens, and grayed browns of differing values in both the clouds and the earth. Then I added some blue violet to the clouds to tie them to the blues of the sky around them. I think the result if pretty harmonious.
This is a beautifully understated sunset. I love the greens in the sky and clouds. One question… Why can’t you use alcohol on your underpainting with Wallis?
This is a beautifully understated sunset. I love the greens in the sky and clouds. One question…Why can’t you use alcohol on your underpaintings with Wallis paper?
Thanks Carmela. For the past several years, we have been advised against using alcohol with Wallis due to a change in the makeup of the surface. Some say that alcohol compromises it and I don’t want to take a chance on an expensive piece of mounted paper. For my next underpainting, I might use a combination of water color and pastel, or maybe oil wash, something I’ve only used once.
Gorgeous (and a good lesson)!
Jean, I think you have done a wonderful job with this painting of a NM sunset. The distance hills, the touch of color on the adobe house, and the line of telephone poles on the desolate road are so nicely rendered. They are properly understated beneath that beautiful sky. This painting reminds me why we are constantly pulling to the side of the road to marvel at what the sky is doing when driving in northern New Mexico!
Jean, I think this is superb, grand but not grandiose, majestic without being at all gaudy. I’m pleased to witness the effect of Blue Earth pastels, as I recently got all their yellows with a view to spending summer in France painting sunflowers.
This is SO beautiful! I still struggle with clouds so will be carefully studying yours.