Peonies Session 5

UGH

Peonies Session 4

Here is my painting after the fourth painting session. I really got focused this time and decided that I would overexpose my photographs to see what was going on in all those petals. The flowers sadly are long gone. The overexposure was very interesting because I got to see a lot more cools in the petals that I think make the whole flowers more vibrant. Anyway, I realize I have a lot more sessions to go. In fact when I first posted this I thought this was after my third session, but alas this is after my fourth session. Honestly it doesn't look that different from session 3. Depressing, but it is fun still!!!

I'm going to turn tonight to painting a photograph of my friend's children at the beach. Not a very unique subject, but I would like to have more paintings that represent summer. I love summer and the thought just makes me happy. After years of painting dark paintings and backgrounds I simply feel like painting happy subjects. So that is my new theme...happy.

Quick Study

I decided to do this quick study as I have reached my 9 hour plateau on the peonies painting. This always happens to me. I love the starts and hate the finishes.

I started painting a much larger bouquet but with only 3 hours to complete this venture on Wednesday, I became overwhelmed. In the last 45 minutes, I wiped out everything but the lily on the right and painted the rest. I much prefer the composition. Very simple. I will make some adjustments and may repaint most of it since I think the saturation of the paint was diminished by the fact that I was painting over a layer of mud colored paint from what I wiped out. The background should be a more intense cool purple too. If I complete this, I might decide to enter this into Something Hot show (cross your fingers). It's 12 x 12 and I can order a gorgeous premade frame from JFM Enterprises. On the other hand the boat painting will require a custom frame that I might not get it in time.

PS: Now that I look at the photo, the paint seems pretty saturated, its the values that need some adjusting.

Peonies Session 3

There is as far as I got in my third session of painting. I worked on the main white flower, the box and background. I definitely liked the box better before, but at some point I have to bring it up to the same finished level as the flowers. The box has a bunch of filigred paper on it, which will be a challenge, so I might glaze down the box to a different value before I start to keep the box in a lower value. Overall it's going okay, but as expected, the painting is getting tight and I'm losing that painterly touch. I will be working on the shadows of the pedals of the white flower this coming week because they just don't look natural. I can't tell if the photo is distorted and crooked or the box is. I will definitely have to check out what is going on there. So much to do.

This is such a beautiful weekend, I think I'm going to go out side to paint a mini painting of a peach I bought at the farmers market with the leaves still on.

Plein Air Painting in Old Town

I went to Old Town this morning to paint with the newly formed Art League Plein Air painters. I arrived a few hours before our scheduled time because I can't stand to paint in the heat. I get agitated and cannot produce. When I arrived, the sun was directly in my eyes, that is, if I wanted to paint the marina. So, I had to find an alternative. I was very lucky to find a willow tree near the riverboat behind the Chart House Restaurant. Unfortunately, it was a bit off of the beaten track and far from the others. I had a great view of the boats, however. I started with a white canvas, as I was not prepared, but I think it worked well to create a summer feel.
It was really fun. I don't consider myself a plein air painter at all, so these last two days I anticipated would be disastrous and, like the other times, I would vow never to do that again. Instead it was fun. I was cool (just beautiful weekend). I enjoyed everyone stopping to look and ask questions. So many nice people.

The next plein air event with the Art League Plein Air painters will be August 7. The group is going to meet the first Sunday of every month. I believe we are going to be painting at the Waterfront again, right behind the Torpedo Factory. The group appears to be part of an effort to bring interest to the Waterfront and school. We had our picture taken as part of the "inaugural" event, so it might appear in the next Tidings Newsletter (on Art League Website). Yikes, I would have put some makeup on if I had known.

Plein Air Painting in Clifton

I got up early this morning to paint down in the town of Clifton. My 10-year old son got up and wanted to come too. I had recently bought him a nice sketch book and good charcoal pencils for acing his geography test. So we drove down to the town. I wanted to paint the creek, but David wanted to draw the railroad crossing (such a boy). I obliged, of course. What a good idea he had. I really enjoyed the subject much better than the creek. I'm going to have to get his advice more often. Here is my painting from today. It's not finished. I want to put in the words on the signs after the paint dries, along with the red stripes on the gates. I also want to have a few more hard edges and straighter lines (to be done inthe studio). I did pile on the paint today, which is not a comfortable place for me, but I love the look. You need to be able to draw some very straight lines, which I was having a serious problem with (as always). Perhaps starting with charcoal would work--at least to set the lines before painting. I did that on a painting of tomatoes on a box of prunes (see earlier post) because I could control the drawing much better and get precise lettering. The charcoal then bleed into paint so that I didn't have to take the brush to the edge of the line and risk crossing over or blurring the edge. It was an amazing experiment that completely worked.

Today was so fun and the weather was perfect. I was in the shade and the wind was blowing softly to create a cool breeze. I could not have asked for a better day. I plan to go tomorrow with the Art League Plein Air painters to paint at the Old Town waterfront. Unfortunately that is going to be in full sun.

Figs Accepted in July Art League Show

I got accepted into the July member show at the Art League Gallery in Old Town. If you are in Old Town swing by for a look at the painting at the Torpedo Factory. It's hanging over the desk area when you first walk into the gallery on the left. The show will be up the entire month of July.

I'm glad I decided to enter because July is the beginning of the new membership year. The significance of that is that it gives me 11 more opportunities to get juried in again. If I jury into three shows this membership year, I will have access to display my work in the bin section of the gallery in 2012. I can bring in as much work as I want (I think) that is matted and shrink wrapped and can display one small painting on the wall (no jurying to do this). Last time I got bin privileges, I didn't use them. This time will be different .... I hope. One down, two to go. Cross your fingers for me. Next month is the landscape show. I have to start painting a killer landscape!