This is a quick copy of a larger painting I did this past Spring. Again, aiming to keep it small and quick, using just one brush. I think it has more energy and immediacy than the big plein air study I'd done earlier.
I'm officially all caught up now. No new paintings since the move, the holidays and lots of other work. Excuses, excuses, excuses.
I'll be back in full swing, soon.
Moving apartments has thrown things into disarray, so I'm going small. Here's the first of a few postcard sized sketches on, well, postcards. I'd actually done a sketch of this 11x14, but pretty much wanted to throw it out the window, literally.
After taking a breather, I decided to tackle it again, only faster and smaller, and without "trying" so hard. Worked much better. Maybe because I'd already worked out what wasn't working, but there's something about a small canvas and using only one size brush that seemed freer and more immediate.
This is the dark-side companion piece to the previous post. Not only darker and more obscured, but looser and more "melty."
All copped up into postcards and sent individually. Haven't heard back from my pen pal yet, but we'll see how well he's doing piecing these together soon. (hint - this needs a comment, ahem).
Part of a mail-art piece, this 12x12 piece was cut into six 4x6 postcards and mailed to my mail-art associate. There's another version that was cut up and mailed simultaneously. Wonder how he'll receive them, and if he'll piece them together. Hmmm
There may be a bit of a log in posts for a while. I'm relocating, so packing, moving, landing etc., I don't have a lot of time or opportunities to paint or post. Things will be picking up again, soon.
A quick study based on what I saw outside the DeYoung in Golden Gate Park. I hear they had a problem with killer frogs here, but I saw no frogs, so they either solved the problem, or they were already hibernating, which seems unlikely due to the extremely looooong Indian Summer we're having. I don't thing that the reflection of the trees should be so much warmer than the trees they reference. Didn't even notice that until just now.
The same view (sort of) but trying to stay abstract and just go for big color shapes. Not as easy as I thought. And as usual, I get too hung up in being literal. The colors seemed so obvious as I was watching the day end, but getting them mixed right, and placing 'em side-by-side, it quickly becomes evident that value is more important than color (well, until you get the value right, and then color becomes the issue). Ahhhh, so much to learn, so much to observe.
Trying hard to complete a "Carol Marine" type still life in under an hour. These are really fun to do, but I need to figure out how to control the lighting — not only on the subject, but on my palette, and on my canvas. So many variables!
I tried re-working the original study to improve the detail and composition, but I think the quality of light that actually inspired me originally is now gone. I'd heard about this phenomenon, but haven't really experienced it before. And now I can't really remember what I wanted it to look like anyway. Hmmmm. My reference photos of this are terrible, and my memory and eye are not yet trained enough to remember properly. Some day. Maybe.
Oh, and the cow was in one of my reference photos so I thought I'd put that element in, but it doesn't really add anything for me.
Painted from a photograph of a miniature tractor I took at Jim's in New Mexico. I had painted this a while ago, but came back to it with some of the chop's I've developed over the past year or so. The composition is still horrible, but the quality of the painting is improved. Sorry I don't have the original to show the contrast. Just as well, really.
I had a little left over paint on my palette and some time to kill, so I did a quick sketch of the church tower I can see from my apt. It's usually lit up quite dramatically, but it was pretty overcast so it was flat, and equally lit on the East and North sides. Just a fun exercise really.
Thought I'd try a quick simple study of one of these flowers that came from the Divisadero Farmer's Market. Trying to resist painting petals, and just painting shapes, planes shadows etc.
On location in Sonoma with my dad again. Trying to stay loose is challenging with so many architectural shapes. So, I tried to speed things up and finish this in an hour. No such luck. I think it was closer to two hours, and not really what I'd call finished, though I doubt I'll go back to it. I just don't think the composition really works.
Out in the fields, trying to capture that sunset glow. The sky is too blue for this time of day, and it contains none of the orangey light. The hills are too cheese doodle orange. One of the major problems is that I think I finished the sky early and as the light shifted, and I was working on the hills, I didn't go back and check the sky.
I may rework this one to make it more congruous. Maybe.
Spooky moody day at the beach.
Now, not only was there no shade, and constantly shifting lighting conditions, but the wind really picked up and the sand went everywhere – in the paint, under my paper palette, in my face.
What surprised me most was a bunch of Dutch tourists came by to look at what I was doing, nodded and smiled, and then decided to plop down right in the foreground. I mean, they saw what I was painting, and with the whole deserted beachfront they just had to sit there. Apparently I chose not to paint them.
Another attempt at a Carol Marine style still life. I'm trying to do Carol's approach of mixing the right color first, and then applying it decisively in a firm brush stroke, and aiming to define the planes. Kevin McPherson has a lot to say about this method as well. I highly recommend any of his books, which you can find on his site, or on Amazon.com.
I need to do a LOT more of these! The deceptively simple arrangement reveals all the shifts in color and lighting.
I've been watching Carol Marine's "Painting A Day" blog for a while now (it's where I got inspired to do a blog after all) and thought I'd try a simple still life similar to what she usually demos. Well, three green orbs proved to be more complex than I thought. I also did not follow her method (which I discovered later watching a video demo of hers) and instead flailed about. It was fun though. I need to do more of this type of thing.
I'd painted this small canvas completely black ages ago.
I was doing some color testing/mixing to see what the various blues I had randomly collected looked like when diluted with white. It's been a long time since I'd done any color charts!
Anyway, I had a palette covered with daubs of various blues, so I decided to use them in a quick sketch of the scaffold outside my window.
This one's pretty big, in size. I was being too stingy with the paint at first until I adjusted to the size. I was still trying to blend areas instead of carefully mixing beforehand and applying. I need to practice that a lot more. It's also hard resolving that the mind says "red" but the eye sees pink/grey. Fun fun fun.
