This week at home i worked on the water reflections.  Also added more color to the sunset and part of the sky.  In class we began painting in color on the buildings.  I was hoping this teacher’s instruction around this would clarify for me how what we are doing is impressionistic.  He continues to say Impressionism is all about light and brush strokes.  that is, brush strokes would all be short.  The thing is, these buildings are so small, (canvas itself is only 9” x 12”) and the area around the windows and doors is so small that i am using a small (#2) brush, and there is no way to make long strokes anywhere except in the sky and water.  So i decided well, ok, my contribution to being impressionistic would be in part to make the buildings more colorful than in the original.

I added a glaze to the water reflections to bring out the orange color more.  Still not thrilled with how blue the water is, but i’m Leaving it alone for now.

Beginning a few weeks ago our painting class embarked, for the first time, on a class project.  We are all working from the same reference photo provided by teacher.  The photo is of a basilica in Venice, Italy (see above, right (obviously!) The idea is that we will paint in an Impressionistic style, which is new to all of us. The thing is, i don’t see why teacher selected this particular photo.  The initial drawing of the buildings was quite difficult and needed to be pretty realistic.  We worked on water today, which was fun as we were able to use very loose brush strokes and not worry too much about the kind of detail i’ve Had to worry about in my previous paintings with water.  I’m going to redo a lot of the water as it’s too blue.  The reflections in the water also need another layer of paint. Color looked good at first but now washed out.  Meanwhile i look forward to seeing how we are going to be told to paint the buildings in “impressionistic” style.

As is the case for most people, i had very little time to devote to painting over the holidays.  I did try to sneak in a little time once or twice, and had some more time today.  So — i repainted the water and reflections today, and started on the grasses that will be in the foreground.  Before today i worked some more on “that” tree — the one on the right.  It really feels too complicated and not necessary to add too much more detail — that tree is not the important one in the painting.  Also worked on the foliage/tree/bush (?) in between the center tree and the one on the right.  It looks pretty good “live”, but photo not so great.

This week i have worked on several areas of this current painting.  The red-leaved birch seems to be coming along, though i still have some work to do on the “blob” part in the top area of the leaves.  The tree on the right, however, has been an enigma.  At first i just couldn’t figure out how the foliage fitted together.  Then last week thought i’d Had an epiphany of sorts when it seem ed as though there was maybe a pine tree behind the green-and-orange-leaved tree; so really two trees intertwined.  However, i was disabused of that notion when Norma (who took the photo) said didn’t i remember all the larch trees in Maine?  These are a kind of pine tree, a conifer, which, however, loses its “leaves” aka needles.  So then that means this area is all one tree after all.  taking that tack, i began painting the small needles on the ends of the branches.  Very hard for you to see; will be better, i hope, when i’ve Finished.  Meanwhile, there is still that area of green (i think a pine tree) between the birch and the larch; and then also the tree on the left, which also still needs a good bit of fixing up.

This week i continued work on the red leaves and then added some yellow=leaved branches.  Also repainted the dark background as it needed another coat of paint and also the greens (dark trees) were not working too well.  So i’ll Redo that part of the painting later this week.  Don’t have class till Thursday, so will see what teacher suggests.

I’ve been given the go-ahead to start painting the bright red foliage on “my” maple tree.  Teacher took a look at work i had done at home over the past two weeks and said ok, go for it.  So i did.  Some of the leaf areas are just blocked in; in some other places there just needs to be a thin layer.  Most of the rest of the painting still needs work, but i think that will be easier once i get some of the colors in.

Began a new painting in the past week. Worked on getting composition set up in class, and have begun painting at home. I am under strict orders to NOT even think about the to-be-beautiful reds until close to the end of the project. I am showing here progress in blocking in shapes and some non-red colors.

Ok this time i am serious.  I am glad i stuck with this one and figured out how to paint the waves.  When i took it into class today teacher said just add a couple more highlights , which i did.  So it’s signed, not yet sealed, and will be in a student show end of December.  Attaching photo of finished product, and also photo of my next project.

Well, i know i said I was done with this painting.  However, clearly i am not.  Actually, once i started on that seaweed and got away from trying to get the right texture on that big rock, it all became kind of fun again.  So — i’m Sticking with it for a little bit longer.  I really do want to get the waves in the front, which are supposed to be “breaking”, if not crashing.  That is quite a challenge, so i thought i’d Post a picture of the challenge in progress.

I have not posted anything for looks like almost two months.  I was not happy with my lack of progress in August, and was gone most of September.  Now back and excited because i told teacher today that i am pretty sick of this project; that i will give it this week and next in class, and then will declare it “Done”.  Before that, though, i have a bit to do on the seaweed/kelp (?) covering the big rock in the lower left side of the painting.  I just started on that today, and i don’t think it will be too much work to complete that part this week.  Then there are some alterations to make in the water (i.e., indicate better where it becomes shallow/deep).  The rocks could for sure be better, but at this point i think i’ve Learned plenty from my efforts.