Magnolia, Kenwood, 20 x 24, pastel premiere white

Hello friends. It’s been awhile since I’ve posted as I was away most of April.  We spent two weeks in Portugal, which was quite lovely and a whole lot drier and sunnier than it is here. We are having an unprecedented period of rain and showers and I pray that it won’t last too much longer!  It’s really affecting my spirits.

Anyway, this picture is in the category of “what was I thinking?”!!!  I took the picture last year in a lovely neighborhood of Bethesda, Kenwood, which is noted for its cherry trees. I liked the idea of painting this magnolia–not a cherry.  I took the picture because I really liked the light hitting the white house in the gap in the tree.  I liked the picture but had decided it would be pretty labor-intensive to do (that was last year!).  This year, I decided to give it a try.

For the underpainting, I used blues in four different values to lay in the tree trunk, house and shape of the blossoms. I wanted to begin fairly cool, to help indicate a sense of shadow.  I began the blossoms with a dark magenta, laying in a general area of them, then added progressively lighter pinks and finally a pinkish white. In the shadowed areas, I added violets to the magentas. I used my lemon yellow AS extra soft tinted white for the house and some of the white blossoms and like the contrast with the cooler pinks.

I made one small change in the composition. In the back left, there was a fence, which I changed into several steps. I thought that would leave the imagination open to wandering beyond, rather than shutting it off with the fence. It’s a small detail, barely seen, but I liked the effect.

Don’t know what I’ll be up to next. Was hoping to get outside but no chance of that just yet.  I hope it’s sunnier where a lot of you are!