Day 2 of the 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge by Leslie Seata, is of my friend Susan walking along a path at Lefferts Pond. I am really loving painting on birch panels covered with clear gesso. My goal is to leave some of the wood showing as well as using more subtle color choices and leaving an element of the original drawing evident. This is a really fun experiment. My hope is to do 30 figurative works in this style.
This was painted in June at Cape Cod. It was a wonderful trip and I am so happy that my friend Paula Hult was such an awesome host and painting buddy. Since then I have been really busy and will post some photos soon showing what I have accomplished.
Wednesday, June 15, 2016
6"x10" oil
This was a fast painting as the sun was beating down. It is a farm in the hills of north western Vermont. The good thing about painting fast is that you focus on the main shapes. Painting slowly has its advantages as well, but I am not as well versed in those. Maybe I will be soon. We'll see.
I have been busy painting...really I have, but I just haven't been good about posting. This is something I promise myself I am going to be better at. The above painting was done plein air with Peter Huntoon, who is an inspiring plein air painter. He is equally adept in water colors and oils, and amazingly, approaches them with the same technique. I am so grateful that he was generous enough to spend an afternoon at this lovely spot painting with me. He gave me 2 tips, which aren't new but so good to relearn them. I seldom paint plein air but love doing it. It does overwhelm me though at first. I actually had to come back the next day to finish it up. The water was so calm and the light was so lovely. Peter reminded me to block in the big shapes like I am cutting them out of paper (great tip) and upon finishing it he said to soften the bright colors I had put in on the trees to the left of the island (which I did) because they drew too much attention from my focal point. It really helps to have a second pair of eyes looking at your work. I am heading to Cape Cod this week to practice plein air painting with two good buddies, so I am glad I had this warm-up. Please check out Peter's work by clicking on his name. He is the quintessential Vermont landscape painter. He has an auction for a painting once a week on his website/blog. I love how professional he is with everything he does.
This is a little different. Firstly, it is a remembered landscape, meaning that I took a drive with my sister-in-law on a back road and decided to study a spot and later paint it from memory. Two ladies in black with red mittens caught my attention. To get the feel for a deep forest I dribbled black paint onto the slate first, blowing it around and dripping it until I thought it resembled trees. Then I painted in the background, path, people and underbrush. I am experimenting, trying to find the best subject and techniques to use on the slate. I think I am beginning to come up with a plan that pleases me. The next few I do will be quite different, so stay tuned in!
This is loosely based on a lovely photo by Lowell Klock who is a member of the art group I am in. She graciously offered several photos for our group to interpret with paint. I loved the photo she took, and I also saw in it a way to paint it quite differently from the source photo.
I am just getting over the flu so haven't painted for a week.
This was harder to do because
there were several days between actually seeing it and then painting it
from memory and it was kind of complicated. I think the key is to keep
it loose and not too detailed. I may have to rethink this one.
This is what I saw driving home from the gym on this rainy day today. I tried hard to hold it in my head so I could paint it. I like how it turned out, especially since it is not my usual palette of super-saturated colors!
This is a lot different for the paintings I have been doing for several years. It is quite large and is very stylized. I envisioned this painting over a year ago and have just now finally painted it. Although it is very simple in design, it took a lot of editing and revision for me to get what I wanted, so there is a lot of paint on the canvas. I am really happy with it and I believe it tells the story I wanted to tell.
First I must give my apologies to Dreama Tolle Perry because I stole her title. She is a phenomenal artist and writer and posted on her blog about those who are "Keeper of Beauty." I was doing this commission at the time I read her post, and knew that the owners of this lovely garden are one couple Dreama was referring to. There are a lot of details in this composition, but I wanted to tell the story of the architecture of the plantings, the allure of the koi pond, the babbling of the brook and bird songs, and the sculptural references. Unfortunately there is a glare on both sides of this photo, making the edges look washed out.
My studio is a converted garage so n warm weather I can open the garage door and see this view which changes dramatically with the seasons, light, and atmosphere. I feel very blessed.
This was painted at the end of Sept. when the brightest of the trees were just beginning to change. Now, only the yellow leaves are clinging to the branches. It was a very chilly day so I kind of rushed this one and had to do some re-dressing back in the studio. Everywhere you look there are Adirondack chairs in Vermont. I think we should come up with a variation and call it "The Green Mountain chair!
IIt was such a lovely day when I painted this. The sun was bright and the sky blue and it was just a tad bit cool. The white against the blue and green and the plum colored maple out front all charmed me!
To find out more about this or purchase it click here.
The way the sky peaks through the tall trees is what drew me to this composition. It just seemed so lovely and simple, but not simple to paint. It was actually pretty complicated and took some effort to eliminate confusing shapes and colors. I wanted a feeling of late summer coolness and I think I have accomplished it. It is just a little shed in a grove of tall trees. A nice place to feel alive!
I think I am finally over the flu, although there are symptoms that appear to be very fond of me and want to stick around for a while. But, I went out today! I am itching to start new projects and paint up a storm, so I think all systems are 'Go!" The paintings I am posting this week are ones I did in Sept., plein air. I really hit the darks hard in these. I think that is because I was painting in bright light, as opposed to painting in artificial light inside. Since I am a neophyte at this process, I think my methods should improve with time. I don't think I will be like Eric Tobin or Peter Huntoon though, who paint outside all winter long. I was drawn to the bright light on the field behind the wall, and the setting which suggests children playing.
The title says it all. My daughter and her family left to move to Oregon today. I am elatedly happy for them and seriously sad to be missing them already. They sold their house yesterday...how fortunate is that, since they only put it on the market 2 weeks ago?! Anyway, this painting is titled "Moody" and that is how I am feeling. Thank goodness for Skype, unlimited long distance, and jet airplanes! I can't imagine how mothers felt when their children took off from the East to travel the Oregon Trail.....yikes!
My goal in painting this painting was to capture the light and the diagonals of the hills. My painting friend Heather Shay, who has a really good eye for evaluating the things that work and don't work in a painting, didn't like the look or placement of the hay bales on the hill, but this was one instance where I didn't follow her advice (feel free to write a comment letting me know your take on this). My eye was really drawn to those hay bales, and they do tell a bit of a story so I left their odd placement as my focal point. Sometimes the rules need to be broken (at least this is my excuse). The deep coolness of the copse of trees had a magical quality that I tried to capture. When I started the painting there was a herd of cows in their shade, but they quickly got up and left and then returned as soon as I was ready to pack up. I guess they were a bit self conscience. I will try to capture cows on another trip. Did I say, I love plein air painting?
