LJ and NJ

So again, when i looked at this painting just after posting last week, i could see quite a bit of sloppiness in the branches/stems — whatever you call them — of many of the plants. So i went in and tried to clean some of them up with negative space painting. Also noticed that there was not enough contrast on the banks of the stream between the snow covering and the vertical parts of the bank. So worked on improving those areas. I wouldn’t be surprised if viewers don’t see the differences when you look at the photo. You’ll just have to take my word that seeing it in person these efforts did seem to help. The top photo is the latest; bottom is one from last week.

Well, when i took a closer look at this work after my last post, it was clear that there was quite a bit i ought to do to get it looking more as i wanted it to look. So — i repainted the trees, changing shapes where indicated; changing colors and values, same. I added a number of new plants and subtracted a few, to improve the grouping and also the overall shape of the area covered by them. I worked on the stream to make the edges look more realistic. I added shading to the mountains to improve the hues. i adjusted colors of snow to reflect better the reflected-sun areas. And finally, gave another coat of paint to the sky. Does that leave anything still undone? Well, if i had the whole thing to do over again, i might change the way i painted all the plants. But you know, live and learn. And overall, i’m pretty pleased with it.

In the past week i’ve made a number of additions, subtractions, i’ve., changes to this painting. Added more shrubbery and worked on adjusting some of the color to reflect light reflection. Worked on making the direction the half-frozen stream takes to make it more realistic — maybe! Added layers to the mountains and adjusted some of the values in the trees. The painting is further along, but not fnished — though probably close.

I started a new painting a few days ago, having decided that “the barn” needed a break. The reference photo for this new one is from a painting magazine, and it is a photo of a (prize-winning) painting. I was quite taken with the bright oranges in the bushes against the backdrop of the snow. One of the challenges here will be to try to capture hue variation in the snow. There are blues, purples, yellows, etc., depending on how and from where the light hits. Only a couple of layers on so far, and obviously i need to put in a lot more of the shrubbery. Reference photo is below.

Well, this has been an experiment—-trying to imagine what the painting would look like if i changed the time of day from some time in the afternoon, to sunset. After the fact, my teacher, who had not been in on the design in the first place, said this idea was not my best — that it’s never a good idea to try to alter the time of day in such a dramatic way. The other part of the experiment — working from two different photographs for different parts of the painting — is fairly common practice, but also not so simple as you might think.

Anyhow, my aim in the past couple of weeks of working on this has been to try to lighten up the whiole painting by pretending that it is earlier in the sunset progression than the original sunset photo would indicate. Another experiment! This all meant i had to imagine what the llight was going to be doing. Didn’t quite work, but a good learning experience!

I’ve begun a new painting, of an old barn. The original photo, shown below, was of interest to me mainly because i love learning to paint old buildings. However, i wanted this painting to be set at sunset, and wanted it to be a lot more colorful. In order to do that, i borrowed a sunset photo of just a dramatic sunset and have begun adding that sky, with a number of changes, to the painting. Not sure yet what i’ll do with all the grasses. I don’t want them to be too detailed, but do need them to be ”grassy”.

Since i last posted about this painting, i’ve done some revising and some adding.. Revision involves the trees. I got critique that my trees were looking pretty two-dimensional. I tried fixing the ones i’d painted; they looked worse. So ended up painting them all ”out” and started over again with the trees. They are not completely done, but close. I need to ”ground” them so they don’t look like they are perched on the edge of a cliff.

You may not be able to tell from photo, but additional layers of paint were added to the water and to the mountains.

Addition to the painting is a little boat. I need to do some more work on the wake and will post result of that work when ready. Otherwise it’s getting very close to being done.

We were in Utah, briefly, a few weeks ago. Spent a lovely day at Arches National Park. I got to do some plein air painting for a few hours and this is the result. It’s a small one — 8” x 10”; but after all the time on the 24” x 36” one it was fun to have something so manageably small. Photos attached are of the painting (upper) and reference photo. I was not aiming to copy reference photo exactly — it would have been not my style to try to replicate all those tiny stones.

I know i haven’t posted here for a while. It’s partly because i wanted to wait until the project was well along, and now it is. It’s also because this painting is part of a larger project which required me to come up with a set of ideas which could then be transformed into a painting. And it took me a long time to get all that together. Anyhow here is the painting. It’s not finished, but is close. I still need to do some refining all over the canvas. But in addition i need to paint a boat in the water. That will be the final piece that is still missing.

This is a little (6” x 6”) painting which will be entered into a biennial show at the gallery where i take art lessons. Twice a year they open up submissions to the community at large. You can purchase two of the small square wood pieces and can paint or draw or whatever you like on them. So i have this one, which is did this week, and a second — a fall scene— which i’ve just begun and which i’ll show you next week. (deadline is coming up in two weeks).