Pine Hillside – Daily Painting
“Pine Hillside” 7″ x 10.5″ – Watercolor on paper – A scene from the Angeles Crest Forest, about an hour from our house, up in the mountains.
Time for an update. The past few days have been more than a little hectic. My aunt went back to the emergency room again on Wednesday, but this time did not have to stay overnight. So we’re hoping that a solution will be identified soon. I have my hunches, we’ll see what it leads to.
I’ve been reading an older book by Edgar Whitney
The Design Principles he discusses are Unity, Conflict, Dominance Repetition Alternation Gradation Balance
Each of these principles can be broken down into design components such as dominance of a particular color, value, shape, line, color, size and so forth. This is basic stuff, certainly, but it’s so well explained and demonstrated that I could probably read it every day and still find more to learn. And the concepts, of course, apply to any painting, not just watercolor.
So much to learn, so little time. Sigh.
Salt Marshes
Salt Marsh 5.5″ x 8″ – oil on canvas, mounted on hardboard
Oh my, it’s 11:30 pm and although I’ve spent part of today finishing up homework for my watercolor class, I didn’t get a complete painting finished yet, so I went to Wet Canvas.com and selected one of the images presented for the weekend all-media event. In this case, a photo of a salt marsh in New Brunswick. This was painted very quickly, which is probably good practice for being decisive about color, value and shape and not to tarry too much, nor fiddle around with a lot of small marks. Do you feel that way about art? Or about something else you enjoy practicing?
I’ve been talking with different people about the daily painting practice and whether or not it’s a burden, an obligation that is kept whether or not we want to. For me, it’s been a joyful experience. I can imagine that it’s the way long-time dedicated runners feel about their sport – you feel incomplete if you DON’T paint.
Two Sweets – Daily Painting
“Two sweets” 5 1/8″ x 7 1/8″
Oil on canvas mounted on hardboard. Available.
While I finish up my larger painting, here’s a little one for today – two chocolates from Trader Joes. They were presented as pralines, but they are actually milk chocolate. The red ones have an amaretto flavor, the silver ones are tiramisu and chocolate. Very very delicious.
Today, on the way back from lunch, I spent some time looking at liquidambar trees. We have an assignment in our watercolor class to study trees very carefully this week, no doubt in preparation for some tree painting on Saturday. I like drawing trees and painting them as well. I guess you just can’t study something too much, can you? I thought I might be bored by the tree drawing assignment because I paint trees so often, but I’m finding, as I expected, that nothing dealing with art is boring to me. At least not now. Well, washing brushes is sort of boring, and gessoing canvases, but the creating part is endlessly enjoyable.
Chapparal Road – Daily Painting
Chapparal Road – 2.5 in x 3.5 in – ACEO – oil on gessoed matboard
This miniature oil painting was inspired by our recent trip up to Idyllwild. Along the way we passed through an area of chaparral, at the edge of the pine forest. Within a few hundred feet this sagebrush and scrub began to give way to tall pines such as those I painted earlier in Idylllwild Slope.
One thing that I’ve discovered by painting oils this small (the size of a sports trading card) is that it prevents me from getting too fussy with tiny details. I suppose it would be the equivalent of painting with large brushes on a 9 x 12 canvas. It’s all a matter of scale. Painting this small forces me to make decisions about broad shapes and values, and not to paint every leaf on the tree. (Well, some of them, but not all.) It would make a swell over the sofa painting if you had a very small sofa!
Here it is approximately actual size. Fortunately I am very nearsighted, which makes it easier to paint closeup than far away.
Squeaky Clean – Daily Painting
“Squeaky Clean” – 5″ x 7″ – oil on canvasboard
Fresh off the easel … this is our upstairs bathroom soapdish, lathered up to give it a little more interest. I think it’s Irish Spring but I couldn’t be sure. The words had worn off.
I thought the bubbles were going to be the most difficult part to paint, but it didn’t turn out that way. The biggest challenge was the dish itself, which is probably a hand built and hand painted, with strange dips and turns and curves along the fluted edge.
But, you know, I like a challenge, so it was actually kind of fun.
A Young Hare – Daily Painting
Young Hare – 4″ x 4″ watercolor on Arches paper
Click to bid
I had a lot of fun with this one – painting layer upon layer of very transparent glazes to build up the suggestion of fur.
Many years ago, my husband and I read Watership Down at the same time, passing the book back and forth as we’d read chapters in our spare time. I can imagine that this might be Fiver or one of the other watchful young rabbits.
Here’s a closeup of the head:
The Water Long Gone – Daily Painting
The Water Long Gone – 8 x 10 – oil on canvas panel. SOLD
As December draws to a close, the dry season comes to an end, rough rocky creeks like this will soon be replaced by swiftly moving streams. Flash floods will occur throughout the mountains and deserts, restoring the native plants. This location is near Ojai, a little creek that passes under a bridge. I hope to return there in a few months after the waters start to flow.
Santa Barbara Glow – Daily Painting
“Santa Barbara Glow” – acrylic on 140# watercolor paper
7.5 x 11 inches
I wasn’t sure I’d have time to do an oil painting today, and to photograph it, color correct it and get it sent to eBay. So it occurred to me that maybe I should try this scene in acrylic instead. I did, and I’m pleased with the outcome, and I think I’ll be adding this medium as a nice crossover between the quick-drying benefits of watercolor and the opacity and painterly qualities of oil.
Most of all I loved the ability to paint over and correct some areas without muddying, which happens in both oils and watercolor, for different reasons. You can do that in pastel, of course, but at a certain point the paper loses it’s tooth and you can’t layer any more. Why didn’t I think of doing this sooner?
Fire in Ojai – Daily Painting
“Fire in Ojai” – 11 in. x 7 in. Watercolor on 140# paper
Yes, there is a theme this week in my painting – clouds and skies. This one came about for a few different reasons.
1) I was looking for a different kind of cloud to paint
2) I wanted some practice doing eucalyptus trees
3) My talented art friend Ron Guthrie posted a wonderful painting on Wet Canvas today based on a photo of the San Gabriels he took from the freeway – and that reminded me of a freeway shot I’d taken earlier this year that might be good for cloud/smoke practice.
The backstory: My husband and I were driving up to Santa Barbara for a meeting and I saw a plume of smoke rising in the distance. Because I have my camera in my lap whenever we drive anywhere I got a few shots of the Ojai fire which had just started that morning.
As you can tell, I made quite a few changes, just using the photo as a starting point to remind me of the shape of the plume and the geometry of the mountains and agricultural fields. I borrowed the euc from another one of my photos.
I’ve been studying the California regional painters this year, and I’ve noticed that not all of the scenes they painted are pretty landscapes. Often they represent an incident – a moment in time. So this is a tip of the hat to the spirit of those painters and their storytelling power.
Daily Painting – Asheville River
French Broad River – 14.1 inches by 9.5 inches
This painting represents a bit of a turning point for me, and one that I hope takes me into new and interesting directions. The painting is of the French Broad River above Asheville, North Carolina, from a monochrome picture more than 100 years old which I found in a vintage book which belonged to my father in law. In the picture, there were no clouds and it was printed in drab sepia. I’m assuming that the picture may have been mid or late summer fom the amount of foliage on the trees, but that’s only a guess. It could have been mid-fall also. But for the purposes of this painting, it really doesn’t matter because I decided to invent a sky and a color palette that pleased me, regardless of what reality presented the day the picture was taken. I used mostly earth tones – raw sienna, a drab red, burnt sienna, prussian blue
In the coming year, I’m finally going to start working larger and with more expressive and inventive color, rather than just trying to render what I see in front of me. I feel like I’m already heading that way but I need to push it further, step by step and to continue loosening up. This painting, for example, was painted with only two brushes, a one inch flat Japanese brush and a No. 2 rigger – so named because it was good for painting the rigging of ships.
By the way, perhaps someone from around Asheville can tell me where this picture was taken and what it looks like today. I would imagine that there would be more bridges crossing it, and maybe it is developed with housing or businesses.
Edited to add: Thanks to Nancy at Wet Canvas for adding details about the location of this and the reassurance that it probably still looks pristene today.
I’m adding the reference photo for those who may be interested to see what I started with and where I ended up. Keep in mind that my objective was to compress the landscape down into the lower 1/3 or so of the page so as to exaggerate the sky, which means taking some liberties with geographical features.
