LJ and NJ

This past week at home i made a few attempts to deal with the big rock formation in the foreground of this painting.  Got a long way to go on that !  Also worked on adding more waves and trying to give them better shaping.  In class today worked on muting some of the larger waves so they didn’t look quite so stark; also added more smaller waves. (Teacher commented that he was pleased that i spent two straight hours on those little tiny lines and didn’t insist on running away to some other part of the painting. We’ll see if i can hold that thought.)

Sorry, forgot i was going to include discussion of both current paintings in post I just published.  So here is update on second.  This one is one I’ve only worked on at home, so no teacher input.  Not that i haven’t been tempted to take it into class!  But want to figure some things out on my own.  So, i’m Still figuring!

This past week i’ve continued to try to get the perspectives on the buildings to work.  Result is closer to reality than vbefore, but still a ways to go.  I decided to move on to some other parts of the painting, so yesterday and today i worked on rearranging the road (it was too wide, and also i had it going right into the water!), and on the landscape in the foreground.  Also, some time in past week i repainted some of the hills and part of the sky.  Still need more work, but better than before.

I haven’t posted for a couple weeks – travel, company, teacher out of town, etc.  So i’ll Give a short update on the two paintings currently in progress.

“Brilliant sunset” is title i’ll Give to the work based on a Norwegian sunset over water.  Last time i talked about having been working on the sky.  Maybe because there wasn’t going to be class for 3 weeks, and maybe because he’s loosening up just a bit:  my teacher, Jim, said it was ok for me to take the painting home.  So before i left town i did begin working on the rocks.  Then last week and yesterday in class and out, started trying to figure out how to do the water.  The lines you can see are just the very beginning of what needs to happen to eventually turn the water into ripples and some little waves. (I”m talking about the water in the lower half of the painting. The “other” water has had practically no attention yet.

Haven’t been to painting class for several weeks.  One week i was out of town; week before teacher had a heart attack (he’s fine now).  And since the rules for this class are you leave the painting at the gallery between classes, it’s been a while since i’ve Worked on this new project.  Today was devoted to the sky.  I got a good bit done but as you can see, the sunset (aka that little white spot) is only just begun.  Hope to get that done next week and then start on that gorgeous water.  I attach progress photo and also the reference photo, as it’s been a while.

Today i worked on several areas of this painting:  water, reflections of the trees that sit in the distance; improvement of reflections in the “nearer” trees; water reflections not related to trees.  I do recognize that i could keep working on this painting to improve several parts of it.  However, i have grown tired of looking at it.  So — on to something new.  I’m pleased that i was able to solve several problems without any teacher input, and am ready to start another to do all on my own.

Today in class i began a new painting.  Spent most of the session measuring and blocking in the major lines from reference photo. Posting here reference photo (of another gorgeous Norwegian sunset – compliments of Norma), and also my beginning work.

There is a student art show at the gallery next weekend and my teacher wants me to put this painting in the show.  It (the painting) is not really totally done yet, but if i don’t stop now i worry i won’t be able to get it into a frame, because oils take so long to dry. After the show i hope to fix the foliage on the trees in the right foreground — too puffy.  And some of the highlights on the branches need a little touch-ups.  On the whole, though, i’m  Pleased with the painting.  Learned a lot!   So — on to the next project, i hope!

Today i was finally able to make my trees more or less ‘whole”..  Pretty amazing what it does to a tree to acquire a trunk.  Still got more work to do on the foliage, and need to add a number more of small branches.  But does feel like progress.

As i have mentioned before, this painting is going along very slowly, for two reasons: (1) it’s a project that i’m not allowed to bring home; (2) the techniques i am learning are taking a long time to get right.  However, there is movement.  I finally finished, today in class, the upper field, and started working on the trees that will be in the foreground.  When you look at the piece this will probably not be obvious — teacher wanted me to start with the leaf canopy (ies), and NOT the trunks of the trees.  So, if you look on the upper left side of the painting, you can see some shapes that will, next week, turn into trees.  The colors of the “leaves”  here are not “true” ; they look ok “live”