This is the second little 5×7 study of the warm light effects on a subject. In this case it made a nice backdrop for the interesting foreground. I thought it was interesting that the fog looked so warm compared to the cool, shaded trees. I really wish that we had more sunny days here so I could get outside and paint!
This is some sunlit buildings in Dexter, Maine near my families home. I am just captivated by the way a simple, even lowly subject can take on such beauty when there is the right light affecting it. I am beginning to think that that might be what inspires me to paint. I long to capture beauty in the simple things and share that with others.
This is a little (5×7) study that I did to practice the color, temperature and value of the light.The sun hits the mountain peaks like this in the winter here in Juneau. (on one of the maybe 10 sunny days we get) It is so beautiful! I want to be able to capture the extreme impact that it has. I think this is quite close to how it looks. I’m am going to do several more this week. It will be my focus.
I continue to find that I like to paint the light. The photos or scenes that catch my attention the most have some sort of a strong impact created by the light. I really want to explore this more. I am finding that it takes quite a bit of practice to see the effects of light correctly. You almost need to outsmart your brain when painting in order to correctly evaluate the colors and values that you see. Challenging!
This is a small painting of a farm in Corinth, Maine. It is set way back from the road and has all its pasture up front. I like to see who is in the fields when I go by. Often there are horses and colts out there. I think this car has been there as long as I can remember. This was my first successful attempt at painting a car. I was pretty happy with it. Usually they do not look at all like a car.
This is another effort to employ the looser style of painting that I like so much. I really tried to go about this in a more reckless abandon fashion. I did not want to be fussy with detail but wanted to focus on the larger value differences. About mid way through I almost tossed it, but in the end I think it came out rather well.
This is a collection of 4×4 paintings that I did this week. They are copies of larger paintings by a friend who’s work I particularly like. His brush strokes are quick and sketchy and his paint is quite thick and textural. Another thing I like about it is his color choices. He uses a few different colors than I was using and I enjoyed adding these to my pallet. (the new ones were sap green, cad orange light, and yellow ochre)
I really enjoyed these little studies. I got a feel for the look and light, as well as a bit more texture. I think this was very helpful.
So these are 2 of the paintings I did as I struggled this week. When I edited the colored one and looked at it in black and white it was not too far off from this one on the left that I painted in one color. I have yet to be successfull with this painting, but I thought I would show you where I am coming from. I will continue to try capturing this to my satisfaction, but probably not today ( =
This week has been one big struggle when it comes to my painting! I took a photo of a beautiful spot last fall. The setting is of a waterfront area early in the morning. There was bright, warm, low sun shining on the shoreline making the dried grasses glow in the warmth. In contrast, the shadows were a beautiful cool blue.
I have been eager to put this into a painting and be able to capture that wonderful contrast. So this week I have painted that one scene no less than 10 times, perhaps more. Each one has been dreadfully unsuccessful! I tried everything, from quick little sketchy paintings, to full blown effort, all with no success. Finally I decided to take a step back and do a value study using a single color. (Almost like a black and white). This proved to be helpful in showing how close the colors were in value, but it did not help me to get the colors correct. I guess I will just have to go back to it another day and try again.
Today I felt like I needed to put down on canvas all the variations of gray I can mix. In actuality, this isn’t even a fraction, but I wanted an assortment of grays leaning towards another color, like a gray purple, or gray green. Gray is really just any color that has some amount of all 3 primaries. This is a valuable lesson to grasp! I think it is one of the things I have found most helpful in my progress. I still need work here.
Art with my Coffee 