Sunday, June 15, 2014

Painter's Progress

 Since taking the how-to-paint-daily workshop in Rockport, I have been painting more... if not daily.  (My abraded cornea hasn't helped.)
But Ms. Kennedy's tips and "rules" have been a big help.

The spot light definitely helps add interest to even the most mundane subject.  I didn't have any fresh flowers, and was tired of the oranges, lemons and onion, so I pulled out a floppy little teddy bear that a dear friend gave me years ago.

Do you know what a CHALLENGE it is to mix brownish tans with blue, yellow red and white? 

At least my effort seems interesting. 

 I have no idea WHAT I was thinking the day previously when I dragged out my totem tiger (made in Germany.  Very detailed.
Again, getting the oranges, golds and shadowed tones was tricky... let alone decent stripes using the relatively large brush I was using.
But again, I'm surprised that my mish mash of strokes are recognizable at all.  MUCH better than what I could have done before the workshop. I definitely learned a lot about observing.  Perhaps I should read up about observational painting, too!
 The crow is finished except for a signature.
Remind me NEVER to to plaid in OIL paint again.  Acrylic would have been SO MUCH SIMPLER! This needs a little something extra.  Or maybe just a fresh start!  (I was painting this without a reference... funny how it has a different "feeling.")

And another painting with no reference.  I was painting for the sake of putting paint on a background.  It turned itself into a landscape.  I feel a childlike pleasure in the memory of applying the paint and recognizing that it looks like "something."  Have you been anyplace that looks like this?  I have been to places that were like the different parts of the painting (reddish soil, purple mountains, prairie grasses), but never a single place with "all of the above."


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