My husband describes Vermont as a state park with lots of villages. This was painted plein air in Jericho. I am dedicating the next couple of weeks to mostly posting plein air pieces with a few other ones thrown in. The great thing about painting on the scene is that the painting, good or not so, is a reminder of the feeling of the day...the smells and sounds and how the air felt to the artist. It is even more of a meditation than painting in the studio, which also is meditative....except of course for those frustrating moments.
Monday, June 13, 2016
12"x12" oil SOLD
This is a painting of Carol and her cousin Heidi. Today Carol and Heidi are undergoing surgery to remove one of Carol's kidneys to give to Heidi. What a brave and generous act of love! This painting was commissioned in part to honor that event. My main concern was to capture the posture and attitude of the ladies in an environment that suggests their family summer home. Carol is a dynamic and very talented woman who is capable of enviable yoga poses! I do not know Heidi, but I am sure she is as beautiful as she looks. This painting is a compilation of many photo references. It was probably my most challenging commission so far.
If you would like to commission a painting please email me at chrisholzsch@hotmail.com.
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.
3"x9" oil For sale by auction on Dailypaintworks.com
True story: on a sailboat in the Bahamas enjoying the sun, breeze and beautiful water. See a puny little island off in the distance. As we get closer, there is a car and a lone palm tree on it. So, I am thinking that the only way that car could get on that island is by helicopter. What? Why? I have no definitive answer, but a good theory. What do you think?
Sloan, dressed for her recital, caught her first glimpse of herself in a mirror. This was a fun painting to do, especially the tutu. I hope I was able to capture her surprise and amazement at herself, and I hope she never forgets that feeling that she is special.
Cheval Blanc....White Horse. Wandering back roads in Quebec, I came upon this white horse on a hill framed in green. I stopped to photograph it and he/she temporarily set aside eating to look up and pose. It was a good day. Not my usual subject matter, but it sure was fun to paint.
I have recently come to realize that I am truly a part of the older generation. I am one of those old ladies that sits on the bench while the teenagers laugh and play and have so much ahead of them. I am not being bitter about this. Inside I am young and ageless...outside I look "mature" but I work at staying flexible and balanced and keeping a happy attitude, enjoying the joys of this long path. I love a good joke but sometimes that joke comes in the form of catching a reflection in the window and wondering who that aged woman is!
I love the expression on this cutie's face. It was a really fun painting to do and I loved the abstract aspects of it, especially the rhythms and patterns, the dashes and drops of color. I have been attempting to paint with less saturated colors and this one fits that bill. It is not that I don't love the beautiful strong colors, it is just that I think I need to explore other options including those that don't come easy for me.
I had an unusual shaped panel and thought this was the perfect subject for it...a moody, foggy day on the coast of Maine. I loved painting this because I feel like I was successful painting mostly neutrals of grays and browns.
I started this painting totally different than my usual procedure. I sketched it in in colored pencil and painted on top of that. I like the results, but it was a lot of effort for a painting that is not significantly better than what I have been doing. I feel like the drawing did not keep me from keeping it loose which can happen. What really caught my attention with this image is the crossing lines and lovely design. I didn't wanted to reproduce the flowers in detail but give an impression of what they look like in a glance. It took me a while to figure out how I wanted the background sky to look...but I like how it looks now.
I painted this for 3 main reasons : 1) on one of the painting sights I participate in there was a challenge to paint shoes this month 2) I have been working on using a limited palette 3) I love the abstract quality of this. I hope to move into more abstracted representational images, but I suspect it is going to be a slow process. I used Gumbacher Red, French Ultramarine, and Indian Yellow for this, with Radiant White. I really like this painting and may do it again with a different palette just to see where I can go with this.
There is a lot going on in this little painting. There are so many decisions to make along the way..sometimes it is overwhelming. These are some of the things I was thinking about: composition, creating a variety of brushwork that included soft edges and harder edges, painting convincing soft shadows, getting the light right, creating a sense of depth, and not least, painting a convincing scene of two girls with their fishing nets on a dock, with some sense of movement. This pond is a favorite subject of mine because it is right behind my house and my grandkids love to play there.
Again, I used a primary triad for this palette using Radiant White with the 3 primary colors. This little guy was walking with determination. He had a purpose and his mind was set on it and I think I captured a posture that reflects this action. I usually am pretty happy with paintings I do that have figures in action. That seems to be a pretty good reason to continue to investigate this.
I used a limited palette on this painting of Transparent Red Oxide, Pthalo Blue and Transparent Yellow with Zinc White. I need to research the zinc white as someone told me it isn't a good choice. I liked how clear the colors looked with that white as it isn't very opaque. I also like the perspective on this view.
I started this painting very loosely and with a limited palette made of some rather unusual choices of transparent colors: Phthalo Blue, Indian Yellow, and Permanent Rose. For the top layer I added white to give it opacity and to add lightness. I wasn't crazy about the greens from this mixture added with white because they looked chalky and lost the vibrancy of the transparent quality, but I went back on top in the light areas with Indian Yellow mixed with white and that helped. I should have tried mixing in Zinc White instead of Titanium, but I will reserve this for another experiment. The surprise and excitement I had was in the discovery is of the most lovely brown from mixing the three primaries. I was drawn to paint this because her clothes and black with bright magenta hair matched the colors in the foliage and that was just fun! I would not have guessed that I could make such lovely skin tones with these 3 colors. Great experiment!
This painting was inspired by a photo taken by Carol Ricker who is a pianist and teacher. These little girls were playing a duet. The original photo was a close-up of their backs and I loved the subject matter, so I added the missing details of the piano with flowers and their stool and legs. This is why I say that I use photo references as inspiration or a jumping off place. It is a bit like a movie about some specialist and only experts in that particular field would be able to tell the fictional parts of the character. Sometimes it is more convincing than at other times. For instance, I question the validity of Matt Damon's character in the Martian when he duct taped his suit and tent together on Mars to keep the integrity of air pressure. Duct tape is amazing stuff...but...really?
Wrong time of year, but I have been wanting to do this painting for a while. The beauty of painting from photos is that you can capture the image any time you want. Also, there is the advantage of not having to haul an easel, paints, etc., etc., around with you. The disadvantage is in not being there in the changing light with the sounds of nature and wind and breathing in the beauty of the experience. When I paint from photos, I use them as inspiration and almost always change them by adding things or subtracting or rearranging. I am grateful to feel confident to do this now. When I first started oil painting I was a bit nervous about adding or subtracting. Now it part of what I look forward to. It is the exciting part. The setting of this painting is a local sugarhouse. I will let you use your imagination to guess what I changed about it.
Gourd Painting acrylic
I also painted this gourd, which I will now varnish. It is about 15" tall. I did one last year and I really like painting these, so I might make an effort to get more. They are gooseneck gourds which is why I painted it like a weird bird. The design was inspired by my love for my family with symbols which give a nod towards some of the things we love doing together.
