Hot Pink Pine, 20″ x 24″, Pastel Premiere 600 grit mounted to gatorfoam

Watercolor underpainting

Stage 1: adding dark

Half done

After I finished my painting, Turquoise Pine, I was in the studio with my friend Sunny.  She said that I should prove what I’m always preaching: that value is more important than color–by doing it again in a more unbelievable color.  I loved the idea and I had several more of the 600 grit Pastel Premiere boards (I really don’t recommend this surface!!!).  My original thought was to start with dark purples (none in the first painting), then move to majentas and reds and hot oranges.  That was my idea.  But once I got going, my natural inclinations kept things pretty much in the majenta range with some soft oranges and warm neutrals added for contrast and light.  I’ve always known that I prefer the cooler colors.  Yellow, orange and red are NOT me!

For this painting, I used a lot of Great Americans and some Senneliers.  I then added Blue Earth for the bottom.  As you can see, the watercolor underpainting didn’t do a lot for me.  So once it was dry, I took a Ludwig “eggplant” and added in dark purple in the areas I wanted to be dark.  This was a good start.  I then moved to some slightly lighter red violets, blue violets, and majentas.  I found a lovely Great American warm neutral in my box with the reds and pinks and used it for the sky, deciding it was perfect.

What really amazed me was the vibration of color, particularly on the left side where the branches are against the sky.  By using warm over cool and cool over warm, it really jumped out at me! My husband calls this painting “Explosion in Pink”!!!  Perhaps It is too much???  Maybe green grass would have been good.  But, I wanted to do what I’d done in the other painting and keep the same color throughout.

For the lightest areas, I used pinks and then oranges on top.  I used a really hot red orange for the squiggle of grass below the tree that is in the photo.  Liked it.  Maybe I should have used a bright yellow green as the complement, but I tried some pieces of green and it was too much of a contrast.

So, what do you think?  Is this nuts?   But maybe I’m a little crazy these days!!!  I don’t think I’ll do another one of these.  Two were enough.  But I really had fun doing it.  Beat watching the impeachment proceedings!

Lock and Tavern, Great Falls, 16″ x 20″, UART 320

Initial drawing using graphite pencil

Underpainting, stage 1

Underpainting, stage 2

Completion of much of upper painting

Completion of lower painting (minus path)

I spent several hours in the studio today finishing a painting I began several weeks ago.  This one took a lot of work!  A lot of drawing, a careful underpainting, and lots of color layering. I found i really needed to do it in small doses!  I’m working from a series of photos taken in 2015 in anticipation of a December show at Artists and Makers in Rockville. It’s going to feature my snow paintings and I have to do them when the weather is cold and I’m inspired!  But there’s nothing here to paint at the moment and who knows what the winter will bring.  So I found this photo which I never worked from and was delighted to see it!  I love the composition with the focus on the lock and the water and light leading back into the picture.  The tavern is there but not the star of the show (as in another painting I did in 2015).

The drawing was carefully done.  Then, I worked more slowly than normal on the underpainting as well, choosing colors that I thought would inspire me.  Two things about the underpainting. First, I used a very light blue and violet Caran d’ache for the buildings and the underpainting is pretty useless!  But it didn’t matter much.  Second, I was working with a friend and she loved the application of hard pastel in the background and suggested I skip the alcohol in this part. Good suggestion!  I left it and was very happy with it. Easy to go over it with Giraults and add the trees in, while retaining some of the different colors and textures of the initial layers.

The focus of the painting is on the lock and it’s light and shadow.  In the photo, the building had very distinct and dark windows and shutters. I knew I didn’t want that. So I put in some color and smudged it and kept it pretty suggestive. I used a light tuquoise for the building and then added some light pink into it. I was really happy with this!  (What I really like is that the buildings have the same colors as the snow in the foreground, giving some unity to the picture (I hope!))

The stone wall took work and I used a lot of Giraults to layer colors from cool violets and greens to warmer ochers and oranges.  I went back and forth a lot from warm to cool, seeing both in the same stones, along with cast shadows and light.  The reflections in the water were done with the same colors as above, but were smudged a bit and kept soft.

After completing the water, i put in the bushes and small tree along the left.  I decided to use a bright red orange in places to perk it up and was very happy with that.  Then I attacked the snow-covered tow path.  I began with a light whitish green Unison and a very light pink Ludwig in the back.  As I moved forward, I got out my Ludwig turquoises and used some darker blues.  I used a combination of blues and turquoise for the shadows and pink and organge for the sun-lit snow.

I knew from the beginning that I’d like this picture because I loved the composition.  I’m planning to revisit another painting I did and sold in 2015 in a larger version.  But first, I might do my pine tree again in a different color scheme!  We’ll see.

Happy winter to you all.

Turquoise Pine, 20″ x 24″, pastel premiere white fine grit

Initial drawing

Drawing brushed with water

Watercolor underpainting

Partially done

Trying out possibilities for the bottom

Happy New Year to my fellow artists.  I’ve really enjoyed some down time with a chance to paint and do a little teaching one-on-one.  So here is the first painting of 2020!  It’s a pine tree I saw in Iowa back in October.  I really liked the photo but not the colors and I decided to work from black and white and use the colors I like:  blues, blue greens, and turquoises. I asked for the Ludwig 30 turquoise set for Christmas and had to give it a try out!

The surface is an odd one. It’s Pastel Premiere very fine grit (600?) white paper that is mounted to gatorfoam.  I think someone gave me the paper.  I remembered that it doesn’t like alcohol so I had to use watercolor as an underpainting.  I began with a graphite stick and lightly roughed in the composition.  I then applied water with a brush to get a sense of the movement in the picture.  After that, I applied various green watercolors, with orange in the sky.  While not as dark as I would be going, the watercolor underpainting helped me with the general masses of dark and lights.  And I didn’t mind having a little showing through.

I used a variety of pastels, but basically all soft.  I did a lot of “hitting” the paper with Schmincke’s, Ludwigs, and Unisons.  I worked at trying to emulate the look of the needles on the branches but using the sides of the pastel in various diagonal strokes.  I used a few Giraults for filling in and smoothing over areas but basically, I kept to the softer pastels.  The paper has almost NO grit!!!  So you really have to apply the pastel with force.

I took my time with the tree. Something as complicated as this requires a lot of stepping away, sitting and looking, etc.  I wanted to be sure that the movement and composition worked.  The painting is bigger than the photo with more room on the right and at the bottom, so I had to be sure it was working.

My biggest challenge was what to do with the bottom of the painting. It was all grasses and quite detailed.  In the last image I’ve included, you can see various brown and green strokes in the lower left corner.  I REALLY disliked this!  Checked with my husband and YES, he disliked it too!  So I decided to simplify it and keep the color within the overall scheme.  I ended up getting out my boxes of green and turquoise Blue Earth pastels.  I used a combination of turquoises and the very grayed brown greens.  I liked this effect a lot!

Finally, I added the orange squiggle under the tree that was in the photo and seemed like a lovely touch.  I added small pieces of orange to the grasses at left as well, and a little darker in the shadows.

The sky is the one simple area, but not so simple. I used various light oranges and pinks, and settled on a little darker pinky orange.  It doesn’t show very well in the photo.

I LOVED painting this picture!  All of our paintings should give us joy!  I hope to find more subject matter that will make me feel as good.  I wish great paintings for you all in 2020.