Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Time flies by...........


Where time goes is a hard one to figure out. It sure flies by without us looking. Gerry and I have been out painting at least once a week. The hot weather has kept us in doors for much of the lost time. We did get out last week and painted in a friend's back yard. We always look for shade to stand in and keep our painting and pallets in the same light. Here is the result of that painting session. The upper left hand corner of all places gave me a bit of a composition dilemma. I painted the space originally with the roof of the house that had a dark brown trim board on it. After looking at the painting at home. I decided to paint the trim board and roof out. It took too much attention from the center of interest. Then that blank space did the same thing! So I decided to put the trim board back in the painting but lighter in tone. Now that space with the roof and the windows makes sense and I have decided to be happy with the finished painting. All that fussing and I really just wanted to paint the tree and the flowers under it.

Monday we had a chance to get back to the little cemetery so Gerry could work on a panorama. I decided to do the willow clump from a couple of weeks ago again but this time so the tree did not take up the whole painting. It ended up being a very high key painting. The day was quite humid and so we get the blue tree line in the back ground. I over emphasized the humidity to get away from an all green painting. This is a little bluer and darker green than real life.
Today I went out to 7 mile creek park and set up on one of the bridges over the creek. Wow, was it nice in the park today. The stream burbling below me, birds singing and children playing--sweet! Talk about green --- I truly need to find a new subject right now. Either that or take up nocturnals so I can paint something with the other colors on my palette. The painting needs quite a bit of touch up before I show you it. Either that or I will gesso the whole thing and start again. Until later.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Try spelling Minnewishinona

Indian names are so beautiful but awfully hard to spell. This little fall(s?) is in a new county park. Eventually it will be easier to see but at this time, I had to lean over a very shaky fence to see the falls and still had brush and leaves in the way. This was a late afternoon painting and the rocks were in full sun and blindingly bright. I was kind of hoping to have more water in the falls but even with all the rain we have had, it must drain away pretty quickly. We will have more opportunities at this site when the park is made accessible. There will be a bridge build right over the ravine the falls have carved. Should be a good view. Until then, here is the view I had last week.
8x10 oil on canvas.
Next up will be a little one of a friend's back yard. See you later.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Plein Air Again

I finally got some photos of my work outdoors. With luck this hot and humid weather will break tonight and my painting partner Gerry and I will get out again. This time I think we are going to try a water fall and break away from all the green.
Gerry found this sweet little hide away for us. It is a tiny rural cemetery on a little knoll over looking an elk farm, a nice meadow and lots of corn and bean fields. We could stand in the shade to paint and could find a painting with every turn of our heads. We did not try to paint the elk. But my, they are really big with huge racks on their heads. Hope the farmer makes a good living with them.

Number 1--This is a little 8x10 in oil on canvas. It is part of the pasture for the elk. They were in the shade but so far away that they didn't really show. Good excuse not to paint them -- right? The fence is at least 12 feet tall. So you can see that the trees were quite far away from me.
Number 2 -- This one is 10 x 14 oil on board. This day I concentrated on this willow clump. There was an elk in the shade again but not in the painting. Gerry and I are working on green variations. There are plenty to work with this summer. Everything is really lush from all the rain we have had. At least we get some variation in the clouds.  I think the saving grace in this painting is the little gravel road in the back ground. It breaks up the green in the foreground from the back ground fields and  trees.


Number 3 -- 11x14 oil on canvas.  I had an eye on this cross road. It was just down the way from our little cemetery. I had to stand almost in the road to get a good composition. It took about a half hour to set up my umbrella to give my canvas and palette some shade.  I liked the way the corn contrasted with the beans and the way the gravel road complemented the greens. Gerry said I had to add the stop sign. Dan says I need to put STOP on it. Not going to happen!  I did like the way the far road turned out with it's little dips.
While I was painting away my left brain kicked in and said " I like the horizon line in the middle and I love the way the poles are both leaning exactly the same. I am so good. I even fooled the right brain into thinking she got the horizon above the middle. The poles were so much fun to fool her with!"  
The right brain did touch ups at home to straighten one of the telephone poles and raise the horizon line. For a bit of wild life I put some birds on the line.
More paintings later--Blessings to all.