Fritz the Schnoodle

Day 1: 20x16, oil on panel (photo taken with iPad under florescent lighting)

I am working diligently to be more aware of paint quality. By that I mean having the brushstrokes be visible. I have always tended to paint smooth when in the studio. I can be very expressive outside painting but that does not necessarily come inside with me. I thought my dog, Fritz, would be a good subject to practice "paint quality" on. He just lends himself to it. I got him pretty well blocked in on the first day, shown above. There are definitely things that need to be corrected and finished, but his personality is already coming through.

Day 2: photo taken with iPad under florescent lighting

Not as much progress as I had expected was made on day two. I did get the whole canvas covered finally. I moved his left eye over a bit but I am not sure it doesn't need to moved closer in. I worked on his face, chest and front legs but they are still not quite finished. The background and rugs got more detail and refinement as I worked my way around the composition trying not to stay too long in any one place. The box in the background is coming to far forward and I hope it is just reflecting glare from wet paint. It was one of the last things I did, but if it is not the wet paint, it has to be toned way down to be pushed into the dark recesses of our kitchen.

Day 3: 20x16, Fritz, oil on panel

Day three has Fritz looking like the sassy boots he is. I did move the eye on the left further to the right; I did work on pushing the background further back as well as the depth of the rug he is standing on as it recedes and finally, some fine tuning on Fritz including adding his tags and melding some of his fur a bit better. I also had to bring his front paws over the threshold as it just wasn't reading correctly with them stuck below that level.

River Fog again or In the Name of Blue

I took this painting to work AFTER I posted it. As is usually the case when I hang a piece in a different environment, I saw some things that needed to be rectified. It only required some minor fixing to give the piece more of a sense of the fog and how it plays with depth perception but I thought it worth another look see. What I did is to push the tree without any leaves more into the fog. I also gave the bush which is right behind that tree softer edges so it was not so pronounced.The wall in the very back I shaved off the top 3/8 of an inch or so. I realized it was too tall and so I think now the perspective is a bit better going down the road. The sky/fog is reading too light so I still need to bring that value down. Part of the lightness is from the photography and how the light is hitting the brush strokes but not all of it. The value in the painting is reading as it should when compared to the photo reference but there are times you just have to do what works best for the painting and I think darkening the sky/fog might be what is needed. I will "sit on it" a bit longer before making a decision.

One of my readers came up with the name In The Name of Blue.  If you Feel French about it, Au Nom de Bleu (which echoes Au Nom de Dieu, which is how I got there in the first place.) If anyone has any thoughts on that please let me know. I am never sure how well received French names will be but sometimes they just work!

River Fog

River Fog, 20x30 oil on linen

We are still on the Yonne River in Burgundy with this piece in the town of Gurgy that is fresh off the easel. We will call it blue harmony again. The painting I posted a few posts back, see below, was also blue harmony and is not far from this painted scene. You can see this intersection in the distance in Docked Dinghy. I had mistakenly called it "Blue as a Visual Approach" in that post. Not sure what I was thinking as I definitely knew better. Blue Harmony means I added the same color of blue in every color mix used. Blue as a visual approach would have used a variety of blues and the overall color of the painting would have been definitely blue. In blue harmony you see other colors but they all harmonize due to the "mother" color used in everything. I am normally a very graphic style of painter so I have been using the fog to teach myself to soften edges

Docked Dinghy, 24x24 oil on canvas

For those of you who did not read the last few posts, Gurgy was a happenstance stop on our river trip. In France, the lock keepers are government employees. Therefore they work set hours, even if they live right by the lock. We were running a bit behind on this particular day and we knew we would not make it to the lock in time to make it to where we had planned to dock for the night, so we stopped at this tiny place. The pad in front of the dinghy is where you tie up. It was just the dinghy and us that night. But I must say, this little town has provided a plethora of reference material. For an overnight stay I think this latest painting makes five.

The Lock keeper, 30x15, oil on canvas

Above is one of our lock keepers going to the other end of the lock to let us out. Notice the sun! We ran into a lot of fog along the river both morning and evening, which was lovely, but the sun burned it off most days which was even better.

Boats in the Fog, 12x24 oil on panel

Just for fun I will throw in another painting from the river. We were docked in Joigny and surprise, surprise, there was fog when we woke up that morning! This is a quick sketch I did a few years ago. We were seven people in a small yacht type boat. We piloted it ourselves, so not some exotic barge trip. Although we did see working barges.

This has turned into a mini travelogue post but it is rather fun to see the variety of work I have gotten from this little 5 day "cruise" all in one post.

Gurgy sur l'Yonne aka the Painting from Hell

18x24, oil on canvas

We all have something in our lives which humble us along life's journey. Here is one of mine. I called this piece the "Painting from Hell" for many a year. I started it in the fall of 2009. I can't even show you how far it has come over the years. It is just not pretty. I try to look at these "hit the wall" times as a time of growth. I am obviously not where I need to be, but with persistence, I may get there. I know intellectually what needs to be done but I haven't quite figured out how to apply that knowledge. I walked this painting to the dumpster at least three times and as it hovered over the abyss I would ask myself if I was really going to let this defeat me. (Please note that I do throw paintings away; that is not a difficult thing to do when it is called for.) When I started this painting, I was trying to harmonize the color using the sludge out of my brush cleaner can as the color base or "mother" color. I am still using a mother color in this painting just not sludge. I went to the color of the fog instead. That was not the problem holding me up however. I think it was my very strong natural graphic approach coming up against the subtleties of fog and bringing objects into clarity as they came closer to the viewer. In Colorado where the air is thinner, we do not often have such shifts in the atmosphere. I am not sure this painting will ever be done as long as it is in my possession but it is now acceptable and I hung it at work where it was well received.

This is the village where the previous posted painting was also located. That painting was in the evening, this one in the morning, but they both shared fog. I was on my into town to find a Patisserie to buy breakfast before we headed up river.

Docked Dinghy

Docked Dinghy, 24x24, oil on canvas

For this painting, I used "Blue" as the visual approach. I painted this as a local tone (three values with a flat feel) with the street lights providing the subtle light and shadow. For this to be blue as the visual approach, it means that every color in this painting has blue mixed into it. I used the same blue throughout, a very strong color, thalo blue. I rarely use thalo blue since it is so hard to tame, but it was the only blue that would give me the color I wanted for the fog/water.

This scene is along the Yonne River in Burgandy, France. We were on a 5 day boat trip. We were behind schedule this day and therefore what we thought would be our last lock was closed before we could get there. We found this little village to tie up to, Gurgy sur l'Yonne. Just like this dinghy, we were next to a small concrete pad which signified a place to dock. I have done more paintings from this little village and our unplanned pit stop there. The painting I am currently working on is a scene taken from just about where the road starts on the right side of this painting.

A Day Remembered...

Out of the Dark and into the Light, 16x10 oil on linen

This is a smaller painting that had me stymied for a number of years. I started it and then let it sit; then I would pull it out, and dabble, and then back away it went. FINALLY, since I am trying to not start too many new paintings right now and just try to salvage what I have laying around that I never finished, I think this one is now done. It looks so simple, so why the struggle? If I tell you, it might bother you too, though now it does not bother me, I don't want to plant those kinds of seeds. If you see something that niggles at you, post a comment. I will let you know. The thought behind it was to do a black and white painting, so, along the lines of dark/light pattern. This one is more local tone with the light and the mediums tying together.

We were spending Christmas in Germany that year, staying at a German farmhouse in Bavaria. We were close to Salzburg, Austria so we drove over on a Sunday to spend the day. I am not sure if it was the gluhwein we drank at the Kristkindl market that may have drained the blood out of our extremities, but it was the coldest day ever. Oh my word. The cold that gets you right through to your bones. We don't get that kind of cold here in Denver. Here is my daughter at the Salzburg castle that overlooks the city. What a view it was and a nice hike to try to warm us up.

Follow up to Auvers - travelogue

Dr Gauchet's Office

 As I mentioned on the post with my street scene from Auvers, it is a picturesque and very walkable little town. We went to Dr Gauchet's home and in the back yard was his clinic where he saw patients. There is also a lovely garden to walk around in.

Crow's in the field

 Up above the town are the fields where Vincent painted his famous Crow painting. We only saw these fake crows stuck in the fields, but  the area is still farmland.

Vincent and Theo's graves

 Vincent and his brother Theo are buried in a very unassuming graves against the wall of the cemetery. Largely overgrown as you can see here but not neglected. It is not uncommon for there to be ground cover on graves such as these. But there are some amazing gravestones and mausoleums in this cemetery which makes the simpler ones that much more restful.

Church with the Example of Vincent's painting and vantage point

 It would be hard, but not impossible to paint this church today from Vincent's vantage point. I was up against a wall with a road right there to take this photo.

 

The Hotel where Vincent lived was getting a face lift