In Search of Negative Space

 Today's painting is inspired by 2 photos: The left photo of a camping reunion at Woodhaven Lakes during a July 4th weekend. My female cousins & I went to the beach while our spouses stayed behind at campsite for male bonding. I posed with my partner's swimshorts since I missed him at the beach. My female rel

atives, sans spouses,  enjoyed our time at the beach anyway. The right photo is a recent one of my  husband after his shower during one pandemic morning. I felt that the second photo addressed what was missing in the first photo, thus I combined them to produce one art work. This happy painting is also inspired by our personal pandemic experience this year that whatever missing in our lives, we find the solution no matter what. Sometimes, we face problems that need unusual treatment or attention for the first time! And we learned that the term Negative means good news! Keep the Faith! 

Sara’s value issues

 

Here’s another trees thru the window study. I was trying to capture the last rays of the sun on the building, rooftops and top branches, but it’s not working the way I want it to. I’m not sure doing it with the window frame helped anything. It’s kind of disappointing when reality is so beautiful but doesn’t work as a painting. This is 6x9.

Here’s another experiment. I used oil pastels for the sun, the clouds and the water, but then I painted over it with watercolor. I like the sky but not so much the water. I wanted it lighter. The water is always  this mysterious color at sunset, imo, silvery, green, blue, hard to pin down. This is 4x5.

Here’s my big success for this week. I painted this portrait direct and I’m pretty happy with it. The proportions are decent and I love the expression. I really went slow and looked for the shapes. More and more I’m noticing that the paintings I’m drawn  to emphasize big shapes over little details. But I think spending more time getting the values down in the drawing will be helpful. Who knows...oh, and I looked at the inspiration photos after I painted the tree portrait they were very cool. im going to studythem  a bit more & maybe try  again... 

elaine t: Nov. 28 | I'm back!

 

Elaine O. — November 28, 2020

I have started an actual watercolor, but it's just a sketch and still too pale to show up.... so you'll have to wait until next week to see more. Meanwhile, I've been working on portraits. I've taken a page from Sara's book and done value sketches as well as direct watercolor sketches. But I've also used my black watercolor paper with oil pastels. It's a totally different process... you're painting with highlights instead of going from light to dark. Here's my first one, based on a B&W magazine photo. Same subject in both, one traditional value study, one a "highlight study."

4" x 3"                10"x8"

From there, I used the same  reference to do a direct watercolor. It's interesting how your mind jumps back and forth depending on the different things you are looking at in each style.

approx. 5" x 4"

Here's another one;  first the value study in pencil, then the oil pastel on black watercolor paper. I gridded the first one and direct painted the second and I think I got  a better likeness in the second, oddly enough.

approx. 4.5" x 3.5."                10"x8"

Finally, a direct watercolor sketch with a limited palette. I have to admit, Ken, that I did find it confusing every so often, painting lights vs. painting darks. In the end, though, I think it may be making me look at things I didn't before.

8"x5.5"

Sixth fish 3

Note that the water riles are hexagons, well most of them, hexagons.  So see I am growing as an artist.  Making the fish's grout turquoise didn't turn out as swell as i thought it would. Well maybe I will think of something. 
 

A little process

I was interested in how I got to the end result in my painting. 

Here is a pic of the meadow behind my cottage in Michigan at the beginning of autumn. 

Then I edited it on my phone until I got to this. 

Then I painted this on Yupo. 

Greeta and I were at the Powerhouse at Beloit College in Wisconsin. We were on a tour and I took this pic of Greeta. I just thought it was interesting. 

I ran the pic through a watercolor app on my phone until I came up with this. 

Then I painted this on 140 lb paper. I kind of liked the simplicity of the piece. 

I sometimes wonder why I just don’t print the edited version but where would the fun be in that?

  

Sara considers pink & purple

 Nora and often discuss favorite colors and she has told me rather definitively that All girls like pink and purple. And if you’ve ever walked down the toy aisle at Target  or bought girls’ clothing, you know where she gets that idea. I liked the action of her coming down a tube slide in this photo, so I decided to paint a  pink and purple world (with a little burnt sienna). It was a challenge to create the depth of the tube, the shadows, and the weird angles of her body. I like the way the closeup composition is painted but I think the one showing the whole mouth of the slide works a little better at showing where she is. She looks more like a kid than a toddler, which she definitely is these days....these are 6x9ish...oh here’s the photo

And here’s my oil pastel with watercolor paint experiment. I just put down a bunch of oil pastel colors and then painted pink and purple over it. I like the scratch thru effect I got using a fingernail and a mat knife. I was going for a ribbon and bows image, but after seeing The Octopus Teacher movie, I’m rethinking that. 

Anyone hear from Elaine T. Recently? Thinking of her & missing he her work...

Vacation Before & After Pandemic

 This painting is inspired by a tour of a garden in the Philippines with 3 of our friends during a time when the word Pandemic was a strange word in our lives! This painting is also inspired by a future tour of a resort garden during a vacation with some of our friends after the World has been vaccinated! Sometimes, all we have to do is eat, pray, wash our hands, watch our distance, wear our face masks & dream! This too shall pass! Hallelujah! Happy painting fellow artists! Thanks for your lovely feedback!

the sixth fish 2

 Didn't get much painting in this week.  I kind of switched speeds with those darker tile on the right. and now I am going to have to do something with the first tiles that now look pale.  Well it's always good to switch horses in midstream no?

Elaine O. — November 21, 2020

I think this one is done. I forgot what I intended to do here... other than using watercolor as a base and coming in with oil pastels to finish... and it shows. The figures are quite backlit and I kept going with the watercolor until all that was left were some highlights. Oil pastels do work for adding highlights, but not as well as leaving the highlights to begin with. Also, I tried to make the foliage lighter and brighter with the pastels; I was only semi-successful there. But it's not a total loss. I got some good ideas for other things to try, so stay tuned.

9" x 12"

I've been Zoom-Arting with a niece this week. Because the projects are quick, I've been trying art supplies from the bottom of bags and the backs of drawers. Here's a sketch from a B&W magazine, using only pencil. I like it a lot more than I thought I would.

4.5" x 4.5"

Another B&W magazine picture, but this time, I tested some water-soluble oil pastels from a kit. I know... water-soluble oils? But yes, these go on like oil pastels and they move with a wet brush. I only had 5 very pastel shades in my sampler pack, but I like these a lot and plan to get more. If you're interested, they are by Cretacolor and called Aquastic.

8" x 5"

Remember the black watercolor paper I had? It didn't really work for watercolors... unless they were light and/or had a good bit of white in them. But it occurred to me that some of my newer media might be a better fit, so I pulled out every art supply I could think of. Oil pastels are a great choice... as is a cheap "rainbow pencil" that I got at a museum gift shop so long ago the brand is worn off. Even graphite has potential. I foresee hours of fun in my future.

10" x 8"

I'm adding this one just because I rather like it. It's one of the Zoom-Art pieces; the result of a challenge to see who could draw the most ladybugs. I lost the challenge (I knew I should have made them smaller!), but the colors are lovely (even more glowing in real life than on the screen).

   9" x 12"

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving. Even if the trappings are different this year, the sentiment is the same.

Weekly Inspiration Pix II

17)  Pierre Bonnard, Vue Sur Antibes, oil on canvas, 1922

 

18)  Carol Rabe, Prayer Plant on Mantel, oil on canvas, 20 x 16

19)   Kobayashi Kokei, Hot Spring, 1921, 333 × 614

20)  Odilon REDON, Young Girl Facing Left

21)  Sketchbook spread by Heatherbell Barlow

22)  Two Women Cooking by Edouard Vuillard

 

23)  Carole Rabe, Yellow Napkin, painted paper collage, 12 x 9

24)  Pablo Picasso, Woman With Black Cat

25)  Andrew Cranston, Adders, Mushrooms, Thistles and Poppies, 2020, oil and varnish on hardback book, 11 × 13⅜ inches

26)  David Hockney's iPad drawings go big, 12 feet big

27)  The Yellow Scale by Franz Kupka

 

28)  Georgia O'Keeffe

29)  Juan Gris, Still life with pears, Watercolor and pencil, 44.4 x 32 cm. 1887-1927

30) Henri Matisse. View of Notre Dame. 1914

 

31)  Ivon Hitchens, Early Spring Flowers in a Glass Vase, c.1930

 

 

 

 

32) Marie Laurencin. Self-Portrait. 1906

 

33) Plants in the Moonlight - Paul Klee

34)  Janet Fish, Beer and Brandy Glasses (1975)

Greeta took this picture of me in Mississippi and called it Pondering the Pandemic..  I just liked the composition and the colors.  Watercolor on 140 lb paper.

I keep trying to paint this red maple treeline over at the highschool around the corner from my house.  I love the photo but I haven't been able to do it justice yet.  I hate giving up on this because it's big but I am going to start over the next time I do it.  This is watercolor on gessoed stretched canvas.  

Back to Yupo!

 

Obligatory Pears

I’ve been told that every artist (if I can call myself an artist) must paint a pear so I did that. Now I can continue on to other things. One is on stretched canvas coated with gesso and the other one is on Yupo. Guess. 

I liked the way the different media handled the wood grain. Boy are these two different using the exact same drawing.