Recently i had a request from a family member to do a landscape painting for her. The only stipulation was that the painting had to have cows. As those of you who have been following this blog may know, the only animal i’ve ever painted is a bird — and a small one, at that. However, i have been working to learn how to do at least a “suggestion” of a cow — well, really two cows. The painting is not finished, but i attach here my progress to date.

Well, it’s taken four attempts but i think i’m finally getting close to a nice look for the upper part of the sky in this painting. I’ve changed colors several times, ending up with “blocking” a dark blue and a purple, along with a just slightly darker blue/gray. Some of this comes through in the photo below — not all.

Also worked on the snow in front of the cabin; on the cabin itself, and finally on the trees near the cabin. I started with one tree which was positioned behind the cabin. Its size and appearance didn’t work, so i added a second, larger tree in front of the first. The all the trees etc. on the right side of the cabin have had some attention, but they still need some work.

I did not use the blocked color technique for the lower half of the sky. Just used what were colors and values that seemed to work pretty well, with a lot of blending in the places that needed soft edges.

My little cabin in the snow has had some attention since last i posted. But actually most of my work and attention with this painting has been on the sky, and especially the upper part of the sky, which is where i’ve been moving up the learning curve of color blocking. So, photo below shows progress to date. Unfortunately, the photo doesn’t demonstrate too well what i’m trying to accomplish. Will post another photo after my next steps with the painting. This does, however, show changes between this effort and my first posting of this project.

Here is a better photo of my little flowers growing out of rocks.

For the past couple of weeks i’ve been working on two paintings, quite different from each other. The first i’m calling Against the Odds. It shows flowers growing out of a crack in rocks. It’s a small work — 8” x 8”, on a panel. In a future post I’ll describe the back story for this choice. Meanwhile, the almost-finished painting is shown below.

The second project, which is shown here in a very preliminary state, is based on an experiment in “blocked color”. This is a technique in which paints are applied in small “blobs” (my term) separated from each other. The space in between in then filled in with slightly different hues but identical values. This is supposed to produce for example a sky which is much more vibrant than it would be if you just draw the sky colors straight across the canvas in a line. It does require some practice, and i have not yet mastered the technique. But i show below my beginning attempt for the sky. the remainder of the painting — eg., the cabin, the snow, etc., are just blocked in and await more attention but will not use the blocking technique for those areas. 9” x 12”, panel.

Reference photo

Preliminary Draft

Well, this is as far as i can go at this point with these chairs, which were a challenge, for sure! I experimented along the way with different sized brushes and with varying thicknesses of paint. At times the values were “off” as i tried to get the contrast between the fronts and backs of the chairs and still have the purples in the water “work”. Anyhow, i think they now deserve a rest.

For the past week or so i’ve been working mostly on the sky and the reflections in the water. That part of the painting has come along far enough that i ran out of excuses to begin to try to paint those two chairs. So — this is the bare start. I am aware, by the way, that i have not drawn in any seats for the chairs. Will have to figure out how to do that. I’m also aware that some of the angles are “off”. Hopefully in next couple of sessions i’ll be able to fix those. The paint underneath is still pretty wet, so i’m going to wait a bit. You can see how the colors have run together because of my lack of patience.

I started a new painting this week. The reference photo for this one is of a sunset over a lake at a village in Newfoundland, Canada, where we were vacationing this past summer. Normally with a new painting i work from the top down, or back to front. But for this one, i’m working first on the lower part of the painting — the grasses/lawn. That is because i want to put the chairs in last. So far there is just one coat of paint on the whole thing, so the colors and patterns of the sky and the reflections in the water await a lot of attention.

Here are the two little six-inch by six-inch paintings i mentioned in my last post. the first, Bird house in Winter, i showed you last time. Now i add the second, Bird ready for Winter. I still have a little work to do on the backgrounds — still thinking about just what i want to do. but otherwise, close to done.

This is a little 6” x 6” painting that i plan to enter in a show in the gallery where i take lessons. Twice a year the gallery has these 6 x 6 shows, open to anyone in the community. You purchase the small cradle boards and can then do anything you want with them — paint, draw, multimedia, fabric — whatever. You can enter two paintings. If i have time i plan to try to paint a second one, which will show a bird on a branch, instead of a bird house.